It's on the Tip of Your Tongue
How to spit the word out
There’s a very distinct feeling of frustration that comes with struggling to remember a word. When we have no recollection whatsoever of what the word might be, it’s not so bad. But when the word feels like it’s right there—right at the tip of our tongue—it’s mental torture. The only way to relieve the torture is to find the word and spit it out, but googling usually isn’t satisfying enough. Real satisfaction comes from somehow recalling the exact word without external help. So how do we nudge ourselves in the right direction?
The science of the tip of your tongue
Brain scans show that when people experience tip-of-the-tongue feelings, their brains boost activity in circuits that are important for resolving mental conflicts (circuits involving the anterior cingulate and prefrontal areas of the brain). This suggests that the mental torture of a tip-of-tongue feeling comes from your brain working overtime to solve the mystery. When you don’t know a word at all, your brain simply gives up. When you easily recall a word, your brain moves on to something more interesting. But when you know a word and can’t quite recall it, the mental conflict begins, and your brain desperately searches for clues of the answer.
Clues might come from words that sound similar or mean something similar to the word you’re looking for. In one study, people were less likely to experience a tip-of-the-tongue sensation if they recently came across words that sounded similar to the one they needed to find. So if you accumulate enough clues in your mind, your brain will eventually hit the correct answer and give you a pleasant sense of relief as the conflict is resolved.
How to find the right words
Here are a number of things you can do to boost your fluency with words. With these exercises, you can avoid tip-of-the-tongue traps, and you can improve your language skills more generally:
Look for clues: When you’ve got that tip-of-the-tongue feeling, begin exploring your mind for any information that resembles the word that you’re missing. Often, we can piece together sounds, meanings, or sentences that we know are connected to the word we’re stuck on. By working through them in our mind, we can reach the word we’re looking for.
Read adventurously: Make a habit of reading new and unfamiliar texts, especially if they’re challenging. Whether you’re picking up an old novel, a strange poem, or an inspiring article, make note of any unusual words and try to use them naturally in a sentence next time you speak to someone. That will reinforce the new words in your memory.
Word games: Word games help to expand your vocabulary and improve the efficiency with which you access words in memory. And best of all, they’re great fun! You can grab an old-fashioned crossword or try one of the many word games that exist in your phone’s app store.
Let’s see if you experience that tip-of-the-tongue feeling
Tip-of-the-tongue feelings typically happen when you’re trying to think of a single uncommon word. Below are some questions that researchers have used to push people into that state. I hope at least one of the questions may do it for you too (the answers are at the end of this newsletter):
What do you call a word or sentence that reads the same backward and forward such as, “Madam, I’m Adam”?
What is the name of the islands off the coast of Ecuador that Darwin visited to study unique species of animal life?
What is the order of lower mammals including kangaroos and opossums which carry their young in an abdominal pouch?
What is the word meaning favoritism in hiring based on family relationships?
What do you call a person who appeals to people’s prejudices, making false claims and promises in order to gain power?
What are people who make maps called?
That final quote (and the answers)
Final words today go to the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein:
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”
———
And here are the answers to the questions above!
Palindrome
Galapagos
Marsupials
Nepotism
Demagogue
Cartographers
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Erman Misirlisoy, PhD
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