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Proper names are especially prone to retrieval failures and tip-of-the-tongue states (TOTs)-a phenomenon wherein a person has a strong feeling of knowing a word but cannot retrieve it. Current research provides mixed evidence regarding whether related names facilitate or compete with target-name retrieval. We examined this question in two experiments using a novel paradigm where participants either read a prime name aloud (Experiment 1) or classified a written prime name as famous or non-famous (Experiment 2) prior to naming a celebrity picture. Successful retrievals decreased with increasing trial number (and was dependent on the number of previously presented similar famous people) in both experiments, revealing a form of accumulating interference between multiple famous names. However, trial number had no effect on TOTs, and within each trial famous prime names increased TOTs only in Experiment 2. These results can be explained within a framework that assumes competition for selection at the point of lexical retrieval, such that successful retrievals decrease after successive retrievals of proper names of depicted faces of semantically similar people. By contrast, the effects of written prime words only occur when prime names are sufficiently processed, and do not provide evidence for competition but may reflect improved retrieval relative to a "don't know" response.

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Objective: Historically, naming has been assessed with visual object naming; however, we have found that auditory description naming significantly enhances lateralization and localization of dysfunction. We previously published auditory naming (ANT) and complementary Visual Naming Tests (VNT) for young adults, and recently developed these measures for children (ages 6-15 years) and older adults (ages 56-100 years). Here, we update the original stimuli and more rigorously norm the tests for ages 16-55, addressing prior limitations. Methods: Test stimuli were selected based on item characteristics and preliminary screening, eliminating those with less than 90% name agreement. A sample of 178 healthy individuals ages 16-55 years were administered the updated ANT and VNT, and other standardized measures, either in person (n = 114) or via telehealth (n = 64). Results: With no effect of age, yet a significant influence of education, education-based normative data are provided for accuracy, tips-of-the-tongue (i.e. delayed, accurate responses plus correct responses following phonemic cueing), and an aggregate Summary Score. Internal and test-retest reliability coefficients were reasonable (.67-.90). Conclusions: These measures provide updated and improved naming assessment for ages 16-55 years, contributing to a contiguous set of naming tests for school-aged children through elderly adults. Compared to the original ANT and VNT, these measures were designed to have stimuli longevity, and offer reduced item burden and evidence-based recommendations for performance measures with the greatest clinical sensitivity. The addition of these measures enables continuity in assessment across the age span, facilitating longitudinal assessment related to disease progression or therapeutic intervention.

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Tip-of-the-tongue states are subjective experiences that unrecalled target words will be remembered. This study investigates if the visual fluency of familiar faces affects the likelihood of tip-of-the-tongue experiences (TOTs) as well as name recall and name recognition. To manipulate visual fluency, three levels of clarity for 396 celebrity faces were set: high, medium, and low clarity. Four hundred and twenty-nine participants were asked to recall the last names of the celebrities for all clarity levels, and, if they did not recall, to indicate if they experienced a TOT. Following the TOT question, they performed a name recognition test. Results showed that higher-clarity faces resulted in higher TOT rates than lower-clarity faces for unrecalled faces. Name recall was also higher for clearer faces. However, clarity level did not affect the correct answer rate on the name recognition test. These results support the view that perceptual cue-based factors influence TOT experiences.

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The tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) state is a spontaneously occurring metacognitive state that indicates that the answer to a query is almost, but not quite, at hand, i.e., that resolution is imminent. Since the time of William James, a distinctive feeling of nagging frustration has been observed to be associated with TOT states. On a more positive note, TOT states are also associated with intense goal-directed curiosity and with a strong desire to know that translates into successful mental action. The present study showed that prior to the presentation of resolving feedback to verbal queries-if the individual was in a TOT state-alpha suppression was in evidence in the EEG. This alpha suppression appears to be a marker of a spontaneously occurring, conscious, and highly motivating goal-directed internal metacognitive state. At the same time, alpha expression in the same time period was associated with the feeling of not knowing, indicating a more discursive state. Both alpha and alpha suppression were observed broadly across centro-parietal scalp electrodes and disappeared immediately upon presentation of the resolving feedback. Analyses indicated that the occurrence of alpha suppression was associated with participants' verbal affirmations of being in a TOT state, which is also related to subsequent expression of a late positivity when feedback is provided, and to enhanced memory.

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To clarify the feeling of knowing a name but not being able to recall it, known as having a "tip-of-the-tongue" (TOT) experience, we proposed a TOT model consisting of three stages combining a face recognition model and autonomic sympathetic nerve activity. Since TOT increases with age, we compared two age groups: young (N = 27, M = 20.4 ± 1.5 years) and middle-aged (N = 29, M = 58.5 ± 8.0 years). Experiment 1 showed that successfully naming low-frequency common names increased the skin conductance response (SCR) value, and the time to reach the maximum SCR value was longer. Experiment 2 was a naming task for face photographs. The younger group showed higher SCR values during successfully naming, while the middle-aged group showed similar SCR values for successfully naming and experiencing TOT. Both groups had the longest time to reach maximum SCR in TOT. In this study, physiological arousal of TOT was not affected by aging.

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Our ability to effectively retrieve complex semantic knowledge meaningfully impacts our daily lives, yet the neural processes that underly successful access and transient failures in access remain only partially understood. In this fMRI study, we contrast activation during successful semantic access, unsuccessful semantic access because of transient access failures (i.e., "tip-of-the-tongue," "feeling-of-knowing"), and trials where the semantic knowledge was not possessed. Twenty-four human participants (14 female) were presented 240 trivia-based questions relating to person, place, object, or scholastic knowledge domains. Analyses of the recall event indicated a relatively greater role of a dorsomedial section of the prefrontal cortex in unsuccessful semantic access and relatively greater recruitment of the pars orbitalis of the inferior frontal gyrus in successful access. Successful access was also associated with increased activation in knowledge domain-selective areas. Generally, knowledge domain-selective areas showed increased responses for both preferred and nonpreferred stimulus classes. The exception was place-selective regions (parahippocampal gyrus, transverse occipital sulcus, retrosplenial complex), which were recruited during unsuccessful access attempts for all stimulus domains. Collectively, these results suggest that prefrontal semantic control systems and classical spatial knowledge-selective regions work together to locate relevant information and that access to complex knowledge results in a broad activation of semantic representation extending to regions selective for other knowledge domains.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The ability to access the deep factual knowledge we possess has a meaningful influence on our scholastic, professional, and social lives. In this fMRI study, we investigate the neural processes associated with successful access to this knowledge as well as transient failures in semantic access (tip-of-the-tongue/feeling-of-knowing). Participants attempted to answer trivia-style general knowledge questions drawn from four different knowledge domains. Results suggest that prefrontal semantic control systems and classical spatial knowledge-selective regions work to locate relevant information and that access to complex knowledge results in a broad activation of semantic representation extending to regions selective for other knowledge domains.

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ObjectiveProgressive word-finding difficulty is a primary cognitive complaint among healthy older adults and a symptom of pathological aging. Classic measures of visual confrontation naming, however, show ceiling effects among healthy older adults. To address the need for a naming test that is sensitive to subtle, age-related word-finding decline, we developed the Rapid Naming Test (RNT), a computerized, one-minute, speeded visual naming test.MethodFunctionally intact older (n = 145) and younger (n = 69) adults completed the RNT. Subsets of older adults also completed neuropsychological tests, a self-report scale of functional decline, amyloid-ß PET imaging, and repeat RNT administration to determine test-retest reliability.ResultsRNT scores were normally distributed and exhibited good test-retest reliability. Younger adults performed better than older adults. Within older adults, lower scores were associated with older age. Higher scores correlated with measures of language, processing speed, and episodic learning and memory. Scores were not correlated with visuospatial or working memory tests. Worse performance was related to subjective language decline, even after controlling for a classic naming test and speed. The RNT was also negatively associated with amyloid-ß burden.ConclusionsThe RNT appears to be a reliable test that is sensitive to subtle, age-related word-finding decline. Convergent and divergent validity are supported by its specific associations with measures relying on visual naming processes. Ecological validity is supported by its relationship with subjective real-world language difficulties. Lastly, worse performance was related to amyloid-ß deposition, an Alzheimer's disease biomarker. This study represents a key step toward validating a novel, sensitive naming test in typically aging adults.

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Adult development throughout a lifetime implies a series of changes in systems, including cognitive and linguistic functioning. The aim of this article is to study the effect of foreign language training on linguistic processing, particularly the frequency of the tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon and on other cognitive processes such as processing speed and working memory in adults aged 40 to 60 years. Sixty-six healthy Colombian teachers were enrolled in this study. They were then randomly divided into an experimental group (33 healthy adults who underwent a four-week training period) and a passive control group (33 healthy adults who did not undergo any training). All participants performed induction tasks for the TOT phenomenon, working memory and processing speed before and after the four weeks. Results showed more of an effect in the semantic access, phonological access and processing speed measures with a better performance in the experimental group than in the control group. In Colombia, this type of training is still new and little is known to date about programs to prevent cognitive impairments. The need to conduct more studies confirming or refuting these findings is discussed, thus raising awareness about the extent of this type of training to increase the linguistic and cognitive performance of adults.

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Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states are typically defined as feelings of imminent recall for known, but temporarily inaccessible target words. However, TOTs are not merely instances of retrieval failures. Clues that increase the subjective likelihood of retrieval success, such as cue familiarity and target-related information, also have been shown to elicit feelings of imminent recall, supporting a metacognitive, inferential etiology of the TOT phenomenon. A survey conducted on our university campus provided anecdotal evidence that TOTs are occasionally shared among people in small groups. Although shared TOTs may suggest the influence of social contagion, we hypothesized that metacognitive appraisal of group recall efficiency could be involved. There should be more instances of remembering in several heads than in one. From this, we conjectured that people remembering together entertain the inference that successful retrieval is more likely in group recall than in a single-person recall situation. Such a metacognitive appraisal may drive a stronger feeling of closeness with the target word and of recall imminence, precipitating one (or more people) into a TOT state. We used general knowledge questions to elicit TOTs. We found that participants reported more TOTs when remembering in small groups than participants remembering alone. Critically, the experimental manipulation selectively increased TOTs without affecting correct recall, suggesting that additional TOTs observed in small groups were triggered independently from the retrieval process. Near one third (31%) of the TOTs in small groups were reported by two or more participants for the same items. However, removing common TOTs from the analyses did not change the basic pattern of results, suggesting that social contagion was not the main factor involved in the observed effect. We argue that beyond social contagion, group recall magnifies the inference that target words will be successfully retrieved, prompting the metacognitive monitoring system to launch more near-retrieval success "warning" (TOT) signals than in a single-person recall situation.

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Tip-of-the-tongue states (TOTs) are feelings of impending word retrieval success during a current failure to retrieve a target word. Though much is known and understood about TOT states from decades of research, research on potential psychophysiological correlates of the TOT state is still in its infancy, and existing studies point toward the involvement of neural processes that are associated with enhanced attention, motivation, and information-seeking. In the present study, we demonstrate that, during instances of target retrieval failure, TOT states are associated with greater pupillary dilation (i.e., autonomic arousal) in 91% of our sample. This is the first study to demonstrate a pupillometric correlate of the TOT experience, and this finding provides an important step toward understanding emotional attributes associated with TOT states. Mean pupil dilation also increased such that instances of target identification failure that were unaccompanied by TOT states < instances in which TOTs occurred < instances of target identification success. It is possible that TOTs reflect an intermediary state between complete target retrieval failure and full target retrieval.

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Though tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states are traditionally viewed as instances of retrieval failure, some suggest that they are a unique form of retrieval success. The state indicates the presence of something relevant in memory as opposed to nothing. TOTs potentially present an opportunity to indicate that more knowledge is present than is currently accessible, which might have relevance for how tests are designed. The present study investigated this. During TOT states, participants were more likely to risk requesting a later multiple-choice set of potential answers when a point loss penalty for wrong answers would occur; they were also more likely to actually choose the correct multiple-choice answer. A test designed for differential point gain or loss through strategic use of TOT states during word generation failure resulted in a point gain advantage compared to standard multiple-choice type testing. This pattern presents a proof of concept relevant to designing adaptive tests.

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Second language (L2) learners differ greatly in language proficiency, which is partially explained by variability in native language (L1) skills. The present fMRI study explored the neural underpinnings of the L1-L2 link. Twenty L2 learners completed a tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) task that required retrieving words in L1. Low-proficiency L2 learners showed greater functional connectivity for correct and TOT responses between the left inferior frontal gyrus and right-sided homologues of the temporoparietal regions that support phonological processing (e.g., supramarginal gyrus), possibly reflecting difficulty with phonological retrieval. High-proficiency L2 learners showed greater connectivity for erroneous responses (TOT in particular) between the left inferior frontal gyrus and regions of left medial temporal lobe (e.g., hippocampus), associated with implicit learning processes. The difference between low- and high-proficiency L2 learners in functional connectivity, which is evident even during L1 processing, may affect L2 learning processes and outcomes.

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People frequently gesture when a word is on the tip of their tongue (TOT), yet research is mixed as to whether and why gesture aids lexical retrieval. We tested three accounts: the lexical retrieval hypothesis, which predicts that semantically related gestures facilitate successful lexical retrieval; the cognitive load account, which predicts that matching gestures facilitate lexical retrieval only when retrieval is hard, as in the case of a TOT; and the motor movement account, which predicts that any motor movements should support lexical retrieval. In Experiment 1 (a between-subjects study; N = 90), gesture inhibition, but not neck inhibition, affected TOT resolution but not overall lexical retrieval; participants in the gesture-inhibited condition resolved fewer TOTs than participants who were allowed to gesture. When participants could gesture, they produced more representational gestures during resolved than unresolved TOTs, a pattern not observed for meaningless motor movements (e.g., beats). However, the effect of gesture inhibition on TOT resolution was not uniform; some participants resolved many TOTs, while others struggled. In Experiment 2 (a within-subjects study; N = 34), the effect of gesture inhibition was traced to individual differences in verbal, not spatial short-term memory (STM) span; those with weaker verbal STM resolved fewer TOTs when unable to gesture. This relationship between verbal STM and TOT resolution was not observed when participants were allowed to gesture. Taken together, these results fit the cognitive load account; when lexical retrieval is hard, gesture effectively reduces the cognitive load of TOT resolution for those who find the task especially taxing.

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Personal names are particularly susceptible to retrieval failures. Studies describing people's spontaneous strategies for resolving such failures have indicated that people frequently search for semantic or contextual information about the target person. However, previous experimental studies have shown that, while providing phonological information may help resolve a name-recall failure, by contrast, providing semantic information is usually not helpful. In the first study, in order to reduce a bias present in previous studies of spontaneous strategies, explicit instructions were given to participants, specifying that the focus of the study was on a voluntary search for information. Participants reported strategically searching for semantic/contextual strategies when they tried to resolve a name-retrieval failure more often than they reported searching for phonological/orthographic information. In addition, phonological/orthographic strategies were perceived as more difficult than semantic/contextual strategies. In a second experiment, we investigated whether retrieving phonological information by oneself is objectively difficult in a face-naming task: in the event of retrieval failure, participants were instructed to search for phonological information in some trials and for semantic information in other trials. Participants recalled semantic information in 94% of the trials when instructed to search for semantic information. By contrast, when instructed to search for phonological information, participants remained unable to recall any correct piece of phonological information in about 55% of the trials. This result shows that the retrieval of phonological information is objectively difficult. This difficulty could explain why people do not privilege searching for phonology to resolve name-retrieval failures.

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BACKGROUND: The Tip-of-the-Tongue (ToTs) state is considered a universal phenomenon and is a frequent cognitive complaint in old age. Previous cross-sectional studies have found that ToT measures successfully discriminate between cognitively unimpaired adults and adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). The aim of this study was to identify longitudinal patterns of ToTs in individuals with subjective complaints and with MCI regarding progress of their cognitive status. METHOD: The study included 193 participants with subjective cognitive complaints (SCC) and 56 participants with MCI who completed a baseline and two follow-up assessments, with an interval of about 18 months between each assessment. Participants were classified into three groups by considering cognitive stability or deterioration from the baseline diagnosis: SCC-stable, MCI-stable and MCI-worsened. Participants performed a ToT task involving recognition and naming of famous people depicted in 50 photographs. Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMM) were used to model longitudinal changes in familiarity, feeling of knowing, semantic access, phonological access and verbal fluency. RESULTS: Phonological access differentiated MCI patients, stable and worsened, from adults with SCCs at all evaluation times. Phonological access declined over time in the three groups, without significant interactions between groups and time. DISCUSSION: This study provides the first longitudinal evidence of differences in ToT measures for adults with MCI. The findings indicate that phonological access measures successfully differentiated between the diagnostic groups. However, slopes remain irrespective of the diagnostic group and progression toward more advance stages of cognitive impairment.

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The mechanism underlying the age difference in spoken word production remains controversial. We used a two-step approach proposed by Gollan and Brown (2006) to investigate the semantic and phonological retrieval deficits when tip-of-the-tongue occurs in young and older adults. Importantly, we controlled the inhibition ability in both older and young groups. In experiment 1 with a people pictures naming task, older adults produced more TOTs than young adults, and they suffered from phonological retrieval deficit rather than semantic retrieval deficit in speaking. In experiment 2 with a priming paradigm, participants were presented semantically related or phonologically related names before target pictures, which formed semantic or phonological priming conditions for lexical access. Compared with young adults, older adults showed a greater effect of phonological priming on decreasing TOTs occurrence. For semantic retrieval deficit, older adults exhibited a smaller phonological facilitation effect and a larger semantic interference effect than young adults. For phonological retrieval deficit, older adults presented a larger phonological facilitation effect in the first-name related priming condition than the first-syllable related priming condition, whereas young adults showed similar facilitation effects between the two phonological priming conditions. Our findings provide consistent evidence for the transmission deficit hypothesis, and highlight that aging affects bidirectional connections between semantic and phonological nodes in speech production.

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We investigated whether the previously established effect of mood on episodic memory generalizes to semantic memory and whether mood affects metacognitive judgments associated with the retrieval of semantic information. Sixty-eight participants were induced into a happy or sad mood by viewing and describing IAPS images. Following mood induction, participants saw a total of 200 general knowledge trivia items (50 open-ended and 50 multiple-choice after each of two mood inductions) and were asked to provide a metacognitive judgment about their knowledge for each item before providing a response. A sample trivia item is: Author - - To kill a mockingbird. Results indicate that mood affects the retrieval of semantic information, but only when the participant believes they possess the requested semantic information; furthermore, this effect depends upon the presence of retrieval cues. In addition, we found that mood does not affect the likelihood of different metacognitive judgments associated with the retrieval of semantic information, but that, in some cases, having retrieval cues increases accuracy of these metacognitive judgments. Our results suggest that semantic retrieval processes are minimally susceptible to the influence of affective state but does not preclude the possibility that affective state may influence encoding of semantic information.

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The tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) state-the feeling of being near accessing an as yet inaccessible word from memory-is associated with cognitive bias. For example, prior work has shown that TOTs are associated with a bias toward inferring positive qualities of the unretrieved information. People are biased during TOTs to indicate that the unretrieved target has a greater likelihood of being positively valenced and to have been associated with a higher value number earlier in the experiment. Additionally, when the TOT is for a pictured person's name, that person is judged to be more likely to be ethical. The present study demonstrates that the TOT positivity bias extends to unrelated concurrent decisions and behavior. In Experiment 1, participants reported a greater inclination to take an unrelated gamble during TOTs than non-TOTs. Experiment 2 demonstrated the concurrent nature of this spillover effect. The TOT bias toward a greater inclination to gamble significantly diminished with a 10-second delay between the time of reporting the TOT state and the time to report the inclination. Finally, Experiment 3 showed that the increased inclination to want to take a gamble during TOTs translated to actual gambling behavior. Participants chose to gamble for points more often during TOTs than non-TOTs.

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In previous research, young adults who were told they were being observed and evaluated reported more tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) instances than those who were not. We first tested whether the same effect is obtained for older adult participants, and then compared the effects of ostensible evaluative observation on word retrieval for adults across the lifespan. Participants in the observed condition were told they were being evaluated throughout the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) procedure and a word retrieval task, whereas participants in the unobserved condition performed similar tasks with no mention of observation or evaluation. In Experiment 1, older adult participants in the observed condition experienced more TOTs than those in the unobserved condition. In Experiment 2, observation increased TOTs to a similar extent for adults ages 18-80, replicating earlier findings with young adults and Experiment 1. Observation can impair cognitive performance similarly for adults of a wide range of ages.

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