October 24th Post---TOT

I felt that the most compelling aspect of this week’s reading was the discussion of various brain-imaging techniques used to illustrate the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. Though it seems as if the neural systems that causes TOT, as pointed out by Maril, Wagner, and Schacter, the evidence that has been discovered so far makes it very clear that there are distinct neurological patterns of activation that occur during TOT. I was particularly intrigued by the fact that TOT retrieval failures are accompanied by activation in the anterior-cingulate prefrontal cortices, a region of the brain that is involved in a metacognitive conflict. This is especially interesting because in my initial readings about tip-of-the-tongue, I never considered it as much of a neural conflict as I did a failure of a sufficient connection. For example, one of the readings (unfortunately, I cannot locate the place where I read this) mentioned the idea of a memory involving TOT not being able to produce a neural connection that is strong enough to enable a full recall. Conceiving of TOT failures as a meetacognitive conflict between the individual’s confidence in the existence of the knowledge and the cognitive level is an interesting challenge to my own previous views on tip-of-the-tongue.

I am interested to see what future research on the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon will reveal, particularly in terms of the neurological aspects. Schwartz’s very brief introduction to the neuropsychological approach mentioned that such approaches have investigated TOT in populations with conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and aphasics. Though the research is still, at this point, limited, it is my hope that further research will be able to clarify just what mechanisms specifically underlie TOT.

On a fairly unrelated note, I also found it particularly interesting that TOT occurs more often with proper nouns, especially names, than other types of words. Schacter discusses this concept in depth in The Seven Sins of Memory, especially the idea of associations. For example, patients would be able to recall that someone is a baker more easily than their name because the concept of baker brings to mind a wide array of images. He also discussed a study in which patients were able to more easily recall names such as Grumpy, Snow White, and Scrooge, which have personality and physical implications in the names themselves. It made me wonder about how often this happens in more personal situations, like if you meet someone named Mary who looks like Mary Poppins. I’m curious if one’s own knowledge and perceptions can influence name blocking in this way as strongly as more concrete associations can.