Tip of the Tongue

Tip of the Tongue based on Psycholinguistic field

Chapter One
Introduction

I.1 Background
Psycholinguistic is a knowledge that learns language and psychological. There are several discussed that learn in psycholinguistic. Several discussed themselves are how language acquired it is discussed about the first human get the word and understood the meaning of the word, in this case baby.

Second is how language produces, it is discussed about the first words, phrases or sentences that produced by human. The third is how language comprehended; it is discussed about how human develops and comprehends the language. And the last is how languages lose; as we know language can be lost also it is caused by some reasons.

There are several causes that influence language can be lost. These causes are slip of the tongue, tip of the tongue, Alzheimer and other causes or diseases. These cases above interest the writer to discussed one of the cause that can make language lost; there is Tip of the Tongue (TOT).

I.2 Problems
1). what is Tip of the Tongue (TOT) and what the causes?
2). how does history of TOT?
3). what interrelation between TOT and neurobiologist?


I.3 Problems Solve Method
To answer the questions above the writer use descriptive method by describe the problems and explanations.

I.4 Systematic
Foreword
Content of List
Chapter One Introduction
I.1 Background
I.2 Problems
I.3 Problems Solve Method
I.4 Systematic
Chapter Two Content
II.1 Definition TOT and Causes TOT
II.2 History TOT
II.3 TOT and Neurobiology
Chapter Three Conclusion
Bibliography


Chapter Two
Content

II.1 Definition Tip of the Tongue (TOT) and Causes TOT
II.1.1 Definition
The tip of the tongue (TOT) phenomenon is an instance of knowing something that cannot immediately be recalled. TOT is a near-universal experience with memory recollection involving difficulty retrieving a well-known word or familiar name. When experiencing TOT, people feel that the blocked word is on the verge of being recovered. Despite failure in finding the word, people have the feeling that the blocked word is figuratively "on the tip of the tongue." Inaccessibility and the sense of imminence are two key features of an operational definition of TOTs (A.S. Brown, 1991).

- In a tip-of-the-tongue experience, you typically know quite a lot of information about the target word without being able to remember the word itself.
- Remembering often occurs sometime later, when you have stopped searching for the word.
- Often a similar sounding word seems to block your recall, but these probably don't cause your difficulty in remembering.
- TOTs probably occur because of there is a weak connection between the meaning and the sound of a word.
- Connections are weak when they haven't been used frequently or recently
- Aging may also weaken connections.
- TOTs do occur more frequently as we age.
- In general, this increase in TOTs with age is seen in poorer recall of names (proper names and names of things). Abstract words do not become harder to recall with age.
- Keeping your experience of language diverse (e.g., playing scrabble, doing crosswords) may help reduce TOTs.

II.1.2 Causes TOT
It has been thought that these interfering words cause the TOTs, but some researchers now believe they’re a consequence rather than a cause. Because you have part of the sounds of the word you’re searching for, your hard-working brain, searching for words that have those sounds, keeps coming up with the same, wrong, words.
A recent study by Dr Lori James of the University of California and Dr Deborah Burke of Pomona College suggests a different cause.
How are words held in memory? A lot of emphasis has been placed on the importance of semantic information — the meaning of words. But it may be that the sound of a word is as important as its meaning.
Words contain several types of information, including:
- Semantic information (meaning),
- Lexical information (letters), and
- Phonological information (sound).
These types of information are held in separate parts of memory. They are connected of course, so that when, for example, you read Velcro, the letter information triggers the connected sound information and the connected meaning information, telling you how to pronounce the word and what it means.
When you try to think of a word, as opposed to being given it, you generally start with the meaning (“that sticky stuff that has fuzz on one side and tiny hooks on the other”). If the connection between that meaning and the sound information is not strong enough, the sound information won’t be activated strongly enough to allow you to retrieve all of it.
Drs James and Burke think that TOTs occur because of weak connections between the meaning and the sound of a word.
Connections are strengthened when they’re used a lot. They are also stronger when they’ve just been used. If you haven’t used a connection for a while, it will weaken. It may also be that aging weakens connections.
This may explain why the errant word suddenly “pops up”. It may be that you have experienced a similar sound to the target word.

II.2 History Tip of the Tongue
The experience of TOT appeared in non-academic literature as early as 1885. Anton Chekhov's short story "A Horsey Name" is about the main character's tip-of-the-tongue experience involving a surname. In 1890, pioneering psychologist William James discussed the phenomenon in his text The Principles of Psychology. James described the TOT state as "a gap that is intensely active".
In 1966, Harvard psychologists Roger Brown and David McNeill reported the first empirical investigation of the tip-of-the-tongue state. They recounted, "He signs of it were unmistakable" and "he [a research participant] would appear to be in mild torment, something like on the brink of a sneeze, and if he found the word his relief was considerable." They also found that TOT is a fairly universal phenomenon; TOTs occur about once a week and increase as you age, and they're often caused by proper names. Further, people experiencing TOT are often able to access the first letter of the "target word" fairly accurately and they also bring up words related to the "target word." Finally, R. Brown and McNeill have some good news: target words are retrieved during the experience of a TOT phenomenon about half of the time (A.S. Brown, 1991).
Although it is not explicitly called by this name it is interesting to note that TOT is briefly considered by Aristotle in "On Memory and Reminiscence", in his discussion on recollection.

II.3 Tip of the Tongue and Neurobiologist
Neural basis of TOT
The anterior cingulate and right middle frontal cortices are two neural areas implicated in the TOT phenomenon. One study showed that, relative to successful retrieval or unsuccessful retrieval not accompanied by a TOT, retrieval failures accompanied by TOTs elicited a selective response in anterior cingulate-prefrontal cortices. The study also found that while attempting to retrieve information, subjects rely heavily on visual spatial clues in correctly retrieving the information. For example, some subjects in the study that were trying to recall a name described looking at the person's face in attempting to retrieve the name. Also, when trying to recall the name of an author, the subjects described attempting to read the name of the author from an imagined book. The authors of the study suggest that "the extent that the subjects in our fMRI study used a visual imagery strategy when in a TOT condition; the activation observed in right inferior PFC could constitute the neural correlates of these efforts to resolve this retrieval.
Human Cerebrum

Frontal lobe
Temporal lobe
Parietal lobe
Occipital lobe

Lobes of the human cerebrum. The temporal lobe (green) and frontal lobe (blue)are thought to play an important role in speech

Three stage neural network model

Simplified view of an artificial neural network
One theory of why the tip of the tongue phenomenon occurs comes from Petro Gopych (2001), a professor at the Kharkiv National University. Gopych’s model proposes three stages in word recall process.
1. Word node selection
o This first stage involves actually selecting which word we are trying to recall. When specifying the word, we identify the learned artificial neural network (ANN) which contains information about the target word, and then activate that part.
2. Word retrieval
o According to Gopych, free recall exhibits positive and negative outputs randomly in the learned ANN. When trying to recall a specific word, otherwise known as cued recall, the retrieval process depicts a “spike” of these outputs with a fixed part of the true information (specific word). The result of attempts to retrieve the word from the learned ANN is an output of positive and negative units.
3. Comparison of patterns
o The pattern of outputs determined by the retrieval attempts is compared to a reference pattern from metamemory. If the sample pattern matches the reference pattern, the searching stops because the word that was searched for is recalled. If there is no match, the retrieval process (stage 2) starts over again and a pattern of outputs enters the ANN. This continues until the reference pattern is detected or the process is stopped independently.
Gopych believes that the problem in recalling a specified word comes from a damaged ANN. He suggests that the stored semantic information is damaged or incompletely selected. The severity of the damage determines the power of the TOT.
Gopych’s three stage neural network theory can be used to explain many aspects of TOT including semantic priming, immediate, delay, or eventually full TOT resolution, age dependence in TOTs, recollection of the first letter of the target word, and many more. Using the number of attempts of memory retrieval, the duration of time intervals between successive sets of spikes, and the duration of single neuron spikes, the retrieval chronometry can be determined. Gopych’s theory also supports Tulving’s challenge to the doctrine of concordance.


Chapter Three
Conclusion

The tip of the tongue (TOT) phenomenon is an instance of knowing something that cannot immediately be recalled. TOT is a near-universal experience with memory recollection involving difficulty retrieving a well-known word or familiar name. When experiencing TOT, people feel that the blocked word is on the verge of being recovered.

The experience of TOT appeared in non-academic literature as early as 1885. Anton Chekhov's short story "A Horsey Name" is about the main character's tip-of-the-tongue experience involving a surname. In 1890, pioneering psychologist William James discussed the phenomenon in his text The Principles of Psychology. James described the TOT state as "a gap that is intensely active".



Bibliography

Dardjowidjojo, Soenjono. 2005. Psikolinguistik Pengantar Pemahaman Bahasa Manusia. Yayasan Obor Indonesia: Jakarta.
www.memory-key.com/EverydayMemory/TOT.htm
www.sciencedaily.com¬ /releases/2000/11/001113071544.
www.wikipedia.com