The Top Solution for Tip-of-the-Tongue Puzzles: A Brain That Lies Low
By: Bean Jones
It's annoying when you can't say a word that you're already supposed to know. It's enough to keep you awake at night. You toss and turn in bed as you struggle to dislodge the word that's just at the tip of your tongue.
Memory experts like Hyun Choi, a researcher in psychology at Texas A&M, refer to these tongue-twisting episodes as "memory hiccups." Studies show that most of us experience these about once a week. While our universal reaction to the exasperating phenomena is to think real hard, Choi says this only makes things worse. "Too much concentration can hinder progress," he explains. "Often, a similar-sounding--though incorrect word--is blocking the correct answer."
Choi adds: "As long as you obsess, this wrong word remains lodged in your brain, keeping the answer at bay." Thus, he advices that when your tongue lets you down, you should distract yourself with an unrelated activity for about 15 minutes. Ideally, this mental time-out will help your mind let go of the wrong answer and grab the right one.
However, if, like me, you can't rest easy until you've found the word you want to say, you could try the trick prescribed by Deborah Burke, who conducted a study on the tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) dilemma at the Pomona College in Claremont, California. "About 20 to 25 percent of people who had reported a tip-of-the-tongue situation were more likely to come up with the correct answer after reading a list of related words," she reveals.
In any case, there's more to these TOT probes than most of us think.
Amy Beth Warriner and Karin Humphreys, psychologists from Ontario, Canada's McMaster University, theorize that TOT studies can help teachers refine their skills. According to their research, the TOT phenomenon is akin to the mental glitch experienced by students who draw a blank when they're singled out to answer a question in front of the whole class.
When this happens, the teacher either pushes the student to think hard or issues a reprimand. "That really isn't the best technique," observe Warriner and Humphreys. For those situations, they urge teachers to give their students the benefit of the doubt. Not being able to give the right answer doesn't necessarily mean the student hasn't been hitting the books.
Similarly, bosses shouldn't be too hasty in judging an employee who can't remember, say, a client's name right away. (Hey, it happens to the best of us.) A memory hiccup need not lead to a workplace rift.
Indeed, getting stuck in a TOT moment shouldn't be a big deal. Unless the word you're missing can save lives or put a stop to global warming, it's best if you just let your brain take a break. You don't have to let it hold you back from expressing yourself.
Comments
I find that if I cannot think of a word, quote, or reference I interject in the sentence ' The word/information is coming - just a minute' and carry on chatting- and wa-la, the word arrives, often to the amazement of people I am talking to. I give it permission to sift through my internal computer's electrical wiring, and processing, then the word/information emerges into my physical reality.
My trick is to say, "just a second I have put a request in to my data bank". then I go on with something else if necessary, but often this little diversion will help the word to come through.
I find running through the alphabet helps me.
Rob
When I get stuck for a word, I turn to a reference book that categorizes related words by subject matter, for example "world currencies," "legal terms" or "eating verbs."
All of the following books are great:
"Word Menu" by Random House; "Flip Dictionary" by Writer's Digest, and "Reverse Dictionary" by Reader's Digest.
TOT is just not memory stuff. It is psycho-linguisstic and depends on your functional vocabulary as opposed to passive vocabulary. A word that is part of your functional vocabulary does not suffer TOT. Even if it does, it will transitorily be momentary.
Hence, the solution lies in
getting your sensistisatios
to be functional by constant effort. There are linguistic solutions to TOT.
SOMETIME IT BEST HAVE A GOOD NIGHT REST AND START
OVER NEXT DAY
This works for me many times. I switch from beta (thinking) waves to alpha (subconscious memory) waves by inhaling and looking up, exhaling and looking down 4 or so times. Eyes can be open or closed. Then I purposely stop trying to think of it and it'll usually come back quickly. Also great for slowing down the mind to be able to go to sleep and for test taking.
I automatically say "it will come to me in a minute." Sometimes the answer will come in the middle of the night. My cat is pretty used to my "Eureka moments" at 3 am. I yell the answer to my husband in the other room who is usually watching a movie, and he replies, "What was the question?" Kitty just goes back to sleep mumbling to himself... "Crazy Humans."
I also find running through the alphabet works a treat, I use it all the time. Particularly for people's names or place names, but also for anything really. If it doesn't work after a couple of runs through, I just forget about it and it usually comes to me soon enough. The alphabet technique just seems to shake things up.
It happened to me just yesternight. I was unable to recall a name i knew very well. It was right there on the tip of my tounge but wasn't coming out. My brain was going thru a list of similar names but still couldn't recall. I let go of it and was comletely emerged in some other thoughts. After a couple of minutes... Boom! I remembered the name. It was as if somebody whispered in my ears. Obviously the brain did it. Our brains have a brain of their own!!!
This tot problem seems to increase for me as I get older. It is embarrassing to not be able to remember a customers name you have known for years.
I keep a little list of favorite words or names that I want to recall on the memo pad in my cell phone, Wizard, or computer. If I can't access it one way, I do another.
As someone who has been living with aphasia for a long time, the tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) dilemma is a daily challenge.
Meditation has been one of my greatest tools. By sitting (zazen)using techniques taught by Zen masters and other meditation teaches, I can now focus my mind more effectively.
This allows me to better follow the advice on this post.
In a practical way, I use online tools such as internet search engines and dictionaries etc.
I also had a talking dictionary on my computer; it is part of the "Cambridge Learner's Dictionary".
This tool helps greatly when I cannot pronounce a word ... being able to say a list of words outloud brings back related words so that is terrific for aphasia suffers ... maybe it can help others too :)
Funny, you mention hiccups. Because it's a perfect analogy. People have committed suicide over hiccups. Some people's hic's can be heard a mile away. Many people have been plagued by hiccups for several months the world record is 68 years. There are a million lauded cures, but none of them always work, except one . . .
How?
Just like Christine Carleton mentioned above, cease trying . . .
Hiccups are a creation of the autonomic nervous system that runs your breathing, temperature, heart beat, electrical signals by the nerves, etc.
To understand the hiccup idea here's a simpler one that psychologists sometimes use: if a lady suffers from runaway perspiration . . . she may be instructed to make the following preparation for the big party she's attending . . . "1. bathe and use perfume but don't use deodorant 2. wear a sleeveless low-cut dress 3. your purpose is to flood the party out with perspiration and stink them out with underarm odor
4. No matter what happens vividly imagine yourself succeeding purpose, "You CAN do it!"
What happens? You're right, she almost doesn't perspire at all.
For hiccups, then, here's what to do. When you get a hic cheer and then immediately aim for a follow-up hic and if you luck in and get an immediate second hic
say "Yes! and aim for three in a row, always remembering that you only have to hic for 68+ years to own the Guiness World Record! "You CAN do it!"
I keep a little list of favorite words or names that I want to recall on the memo pad in my cell phone, Wizard, or computer. If I can't access it one way, I do another.
going through the alphabets always works for me.
You mention that often a similar word will serve as a sort of logjammer to block the TOT word. When I deliberately say the 'wrong' word that has come to mind, it sometimes jars lose the right word and lets me complete the thought more rapidly.
When I am reading these, I just recalling a name, hardly to remember. So I let myself reading the blogs completely. Then suddenly, I remembered the last name,,,bang! then the first name.