The Tip Of The Tongue Phenomenon

He tip of the tongue phenomenon (PL, in Spanish, TOT “Tip of tongue”, in English) thus constitutes, in relation to lexical processing, a clear example that the subject may present difficulties or momentary blocks in accessing the phonological representation of the word. This seems especially recurrent the older the person is, according to different research carried out (Maylor, 1990a; Brown and Nix, 1996). Therefore, in the present experiment, elderly subjects would not be included, in order to control for this effect.

During the PL state, you have the intense sensation of knowing the word, of being about to reach consciousness, but you do not access it. The person usually remembers superficial information about the searched term, tries to search for synonyms or alternative words as a strategy to infer and utter the word. The subject knows that he has the phonetic information that he needs and that he has it stored in his memory and that, sooner or later, he will end up being able to access it. It is a common and frequent phenomenon among the population, especially in old age, although there is even talk of a high frequency among students due to lawsuits. The highest probability usually occurs with proper nouns, followed by common nouns and, finally, verbs and adjectives.

From a theoretical point of view, there is general agreement from connectionist models (MacKay and Burke, 1990) as well as from serial models (Levelt, Roelofs and Meyer, 1999) that the problem is a failure in phonological activation once the corresponding semantic representation is activated.

Brown and McNeill (1966) devised an experiment in which the phenomenon was studied through the presentation of definitions of rare words to which the participants had to respond with three written responses: they knew the word, they did not know it, they knew it but they didn’t remember. The results of their research showed that, in a PL state, the speaker has information about the word that he cannot recover, especially the initial and final letter, the number of syllables and the position of the main stress, which demonstrated that the Lexical recovery is not carried out in an all-or-nothing manner, in a single step, but rather there are at least two types of differentiated cognitive representations: phonological information and semantic information, and whose access also corresponds to differentiated processes.

Connectionist models They propose the cerebral and neuronal metaphor that explains the cognitive process of lexical access through “neural networks” composed of nodes and connections between these nodes. According to this model, the most frequently used word units are more closely connected to lower-level nodes, such as phonological and orthographic features. Thus, when a node is activated or a connection is produced, the activation will spread in all directions, increasing all the representations that visually, phonologically and semantically resemble the searched word. On the other hand, each time a word is processed, the connections corresponding to this word are strengthened (McClelland and Rumelhart, 1981), so one of the important aspects for this model would be the frequency of the word, which would make it high-frequency words would not be susceptible to PL, while low-frequency words would be, because their model advocates a central importance to the strength of the connections (the higher the frequency of word use, the stronger connections, the less risk of PL ).

Adhering to the results obtained by Brown and McNeill, and taking into consideration the explanation of the connectionist models, we proposed this experiment with the objective of obtaining experimental evidence in favor of a type of activator, semantic type or perceptual type, which would imply a prior activation and would reduce the latency time in the recovery of the word in the PL, as well as confirming the theory that low-frequency words are affected to a greater extent by this phenomenon, which results in a longer recovery time. greater reaction to them.

Therefore, two types of facilitators (priming) will be presented in the tasks to be carried out: a perceptual priming and a semantic primingin categories of similar words so that it can be compared, and classified into high and low frequency.

The priming effect refers to the influence that a stimulus has on the subsequent performance of the processing system (Schacter, 1995). We can distinguish several types of priming, including those chosen for the present research design: perceptual priming and semantic priming (Blaxton, 1989).

Semantic priming is affected by manipulations of the level of processing, while perceptual priming is susceptible to physical manipulations of the stimuli.

Perceptual priming is that which will be expressed through indirect tests. In these tests, processing is determined by the physical characteristics of the cues in the experiment. According to Tulving & Schacter (1990), it is a pre-semantic phenomenon that would reflect the activity of the Perceptual Representation System. We can present it in visual, auditory, olfactory, haptic formats. In the experiment, it will be presented in a visual format.

Semantic priming is that which will be expressed through indirect tests in which conceptual processing of the stimuli is required. It can be affected by semantic encoding operations, and is practically not sensitive to changes in the surface properties of information. The processing of stimuli and their implicit retrieval is a function of semantic organization (Tulving & Schacter, 1990). One aspect that we will take into account when choosing semantic priming will be what Shelton and Martín (1992) offered us in their research, that is, a distinction must be made between associative and non-associative semantic priming, since priming Automatic is obtained for associatively related words, but not for words that are semantically but not associatively related. This could also influence the latency time we studied. According to Groot’s (1990) experimental results, facilitation effects are shown only in the associatively related condition. In our case, therefore, to present greater facilitation, we will present only semantic priming of an associative type.

Finally, according to Craik & Lockhart (1972), there are two levels of processing: surface and deep. The information would be encoded at superficial levels when it is processing based on the characteristics of the stimulus, while deep processing would be that which occurs from the elaboration of the meaning.

Next, we explain the method.

The research will involve 180 subjects (90 men and 90 women) on a voluntary basis, from 25 to 55 years old, distributed into six age groups (25-30/31-35/36-40/41-45/46-50/51-55). The educational level factor is controlled, selecting all subjects with a medium/higher level (high school/university studies). Recruitment will be done among different groups, participating without any remuneration. Participants will not present sensory, neurological or substance consumption alterations that could affect the development of the tasks.

As devices, two computers have been used, in which the definitions have been appearing, a questionnaire in which each subject must indicate their name, age and sex, and a pencil to take notes.

Regarding the facilitators presented, the computer has been used for both with the appearance of priming (whether semantic or visual) when the PL phenomenon is occurring, by pressing the “enter” button. Thus, it will be only at this moment that the facilitator will appear to help the speaker utter the target word.

The target words will be a total of 80 words, a mixture of high and low frequency, distributed in the categories: common names, names of emblematic cities, names of famous people and adjectives. These categories are similar to those used by other researchers, Burke et al. (1991). It is considered to present a high number of words given that the reproduction of the PL phenomenon in the laboratory is complex, hence, an attempt is made to present a sufficient number of opportunities for the PL phenomenon to occur.

For definitions, the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (At http://www.rae.es/) (V.2003) will be used. In the case of the names of emblematic cities and famous people, ad hoc definitions were made.

To choose the low frequency words, the frequency dictionary of Alameda and Cuetos (1995) was used, using words such as mausoleum, dungeon, reliquary, etc… The high frequency words will be words that are used regularly in different contexts. everyday.

For each of the definitions, a semantic facilitator or a visual facilitator.

An example of a word: Famous Character –> Elisabeth Taylor.

Definition: Actress who began in the world of cinema at the age of seven, was married numerous times and has been Richard Burton’s partner in a very famous film. / Visual priming: scene from the movie “Lassie” in which the actress appears.

An example of a word: Low frequency common noun ? Zeppelin.

Definition: 1. m. Airship balloon plus (RAE) / Visual priming? photo of a zeppelin.

An example of a word: High frequency common noun ? Cooking pot.

Definition: 1. f. Round clay or metal vessel, which commonly forms a belly, with a wide neck and mouth and one or two handles, which is used to cook food, heat water, etc. (RAE) / Associative semantic priming: saucepan? cooking pot.

The experiment will be carried out individually, in an adequately illuminated and quiet room. Each session should not exceed 15 minutes, to avoid the fatigue effect. Before starting the task, you will be offered a broad explanation of the task to be carried out as well as the records that must be made, giving you the material. In each session, a researcher will be present who will record the reaction times between the appearance of the definition on the screen until the advance to the next definition, using a specific time recording program on another computer.

The procedure is a word evocation task under PL conditions. It will consist of the following:

The following will appear on the computer screen: definitions of target words. We will not take into account the presentation time, since we do not consider it relevant in the experiment. The definition can remain present as long as necessary until the next one. Given these, the subject must write in the questionnaire that the corresponding word will have been provided.

• If you know the word and get the evocation, press the green button, defined for this purpose, for the next definition.
• If you do not know the word or the PL is presented, press the red button to advance to the next definition.
• If the PL occurs, that is, if they know it but cannot access it, a yellow button will be pressed and a priming (semantic or visual) will appear randomly. If, even with the facilitator, the subject cannot utter the word, they will press the red button again that will take them to the next definition. In this case, an “x” will be noted in the registration questionnaire in the corresponding box “I was not able to access the word.” If the circumstance arises that the word in question cannot be accessed, but a synonymous word appears, this will also be recorded in the questionnaire, which will also return a value indicative of the words “intruder” (persistent alternative words that block the appearance of the target word) which, although not the reason for the present investigation, can give us a reference point for other experiments.

Regarding the pre-experiment trials, each subject will be able to perform four practice trials. It is explained to them that it is a research on memory, but it is not explained to them that it is about the PL phenomenon.

In the presented task, a mixed factorial design 6x2x1x4x2x2x2, with two independent intersubject variables (age and sex variable) and five independent intrasubject variables (task, category, frequency, prime and target).

• Intersubjects independent variable “Age” with 6 levels (25-30/31-35/36-40/41-45/46-50/51-55)
• Between-subjects independent variable “Sex” with 2 levels (men/women) Within-subjects independent variable “Task” with 1 level (word evocation)
• Independent variable Within subjects “Category” with 4 levels (common names, emblematic cities, famous people, adjectives)
• Independent variable within subjects “Frequency” with 2 levels (high frequency, low frequency)
• “Prime” within-subjects independent variable with 2 levels (Visual, Semantic)
• “Target” within-subjects independent variable with 2 levels (word, non-word)

The dependent variable was the time it took for the subject to make the response, that is, the reaction time.

What is expected to be obtained are shorter latency times, depending on the priming presented and depending on the frequency of the word (high or low), confirming the connectionist theory and confirming whether the shorter latency time corresponds to the presentation of a certain priming or not.

Based on connectionist models and to the results obtained by researchers Brown and McNeill, according to which the frequency of the word is relevant when it comes to the PL phenomenon, that a series of activations occur at a visual, semantic and phonological level when the connection of a node and that the speaker has the information about the word, such as the initial and final letter, the number of syllables and the position of the main stress, the expected results are shorter latency times when definitions/questions about high frequency words and as a novelty we hope to know what type of activation prevails over the others based on the results obtained from Brown and McNeil. That is, given that they obtained as a result that the speaker has information about the word, although he cannot access it, the experiment will check if shorter reaction times are obtained, even when the help is being provided with semantic and not phonological priming. , which would be the one that could best favor access to the word according to them. In the corresponding analysis of results, all the data we obtain relating to correct responses but not occurring under the PL phenomenon will be excluded, as well as incorrect responses that do not correspond to the target word.

Taking into consideration that This research is only a design proposal, we do not have certain results on reaction times to be able to verify the hypothesis posed at the beginning of the report and, in this way, review whether the results confirm or not the stated predictions. Therefore, depending on whether these predictions are fulfilled or not, we could reach the conclusion that in lexical access the connectionist model is confirmed, in the sense that different activations occur (visual, phonological and semantic) and that, Furthermore, there may be a process of competition between these activations, in the manner suggested by the interactive activation model (IAM) of McClelland and Rumelhart (1981), when they described word recognition through a mechanism of parallel activation and competition in the lexical level of representation. On the other hand, depending on the results obtained with the presentation of the two facilitators, depending on whether a greater PL effect is produced in high or low frequency words, we will obtain a new confirmation of the data obtained by Brown and McNeill, and it would also confirm connectionist models for which every time a word is processed the connections are strengthened (McClelland and Rumelhart, 1981), which would lead us to the conclusion that low-frequency words are going to be candidates for access problems. before high frequency ones.

Through lexical access research, we can implement different training strategies for different language difficulties, such as, for example, strategies so that subjects with language disorders can carry out certain training for better use of their resources or strategies for students with language problems. learning, through the development of linguistic games.

In conclusion, the study of lexical access and transmission processes in the network of nodes as well as the activations have not yet reached definitive conclusions, so all types of research carried out in this regard will greatly contribute to alleviating or improving different language disorders, an essential aspect of human beings in their social interaction. .

This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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