Tip of the Tongue States Increase Under Evaluative Observation

Overview

Journal J Psycholinguist Res

Publisher Springer

Specialty Psychology

Date 2017 Oct 12

PMID 29019103

Citations 2

Authors

Lori E James

Christopher J Schmank

Nichol Castro

Tony W Buchanan

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

We tested the frequent assumption that the difficulty of word retrieval increases when a speaker is being observed and evaluated. We modified the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) so that participants believed that its evaluative observation components continued throughout the duration of a subsequent word retrieval task, and measured participants' reported tip of the tongue (TOT) states. Participants in this TSST condition experienced more TOTs than participants in a comparable, placebo TSST condition in which there was no suggestion of evaluative observation. This experiment provides initial evidence confirming the assumption that evaluative observation by a third party can be disruptive to word retrieval. We interpret our findings by proposing an extension to a well-supported theoretical model of TOTs.

Citing Articles

Predicting Working Memory in Healthy Older Adults Using Real-Life Language and Social Context Information: A Machine Learning Approach.

Ferrario A, Luo M, Polsinelli A, Moseley S, Mehl M, Yordanova K JMIR Aging. 2022; 5(1):e28333.

PMID: 35258457 PMC: 8941438. DOI: 10.2196/28333.

Socially Shared Feelings of Imminent Recall: More Tip-of-the-Tongue States Are Experienced in Small Groups.

Rousseau L, Kashur N Front Psychol. 2021; 12:704433.

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