tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

Examples of tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon in the following topics:

• Memory Retrieval: Recognition and Recall

  • Overall, the mechanisms of memory are not completely understood.
  • The testing effect shows that practicing retrieval of a concept can increase the chance of remembering it.
  • The primacy effect occurs when a participant remembers words from the beginning of a list better than the words from the middle or end.
  • Past memories can inhibit the encoding of new memories.
  • Occasionally, a person will experience a specific type of retrieval failure called tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.

• Types of Forgetting

  • The trace decay theory of forgetting states that all memories fade automatically as a function of time.
  • Having such a strong memory would negatively impact the recall of the new information, and when asked how many planets there are, someone who grew up thinking of Pluto as a planet might say nine instead of eight.
  • State-dependent cues are governed by the state of mind at the time of encoding.
  • Memory retrieval can be facilitated or triggered by replication of the context in which the memory was encoded.
  • Blocking is a primary cause of the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.

• Gustation: Taste Buds and Taste

  • The tongue is the main sensory organ of the gustatory system.
  • fungiform papillae, which are mushroom-shaped and located at the tip of the tongue;
  • foliate papillae, which are ridges and grooves toward the back of the tongue;
  • circumvallate papillae, which are circular-shaped and located in a row just in front of the end of the tongue.
  • They each contain a taste pore at the surface of the tongue which is the site of sensory transduction.

• A History of Theories of Consciousness

  • René Descartes also addressed the idea of consciousness in the 17th century.
  • The conscious level consists of all the things we are aware of, including things we know about ourselves and our surroundings.
  • Freud saw the preconscious as comprised of thoughts that are unconscious at the particular moment in question, but that are not repressed and are therefore available for recall and easily capable of becoming conscious (for example, the tip-of-the-tongue effect).
  • A major part of the modern scientific literature on consciousness consists of studies that examine the relationship between the experiences reported by subjects and the activity that simultaneously takes place in their brains—that is, studies of the neural correlates of consciousness.
  • This figure illustrates the respective levels of the id, ego, and superego.