The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon: search strategy and resolution during word finding difficulties

A tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) experience refers to the state in which a speaker is temporally unable to retrieve a word from memory, while being sure that he knows the word. The recovered partial information can consist of competing items that resemble the target word phonologically or semantically and could give rise to competition or conflict during attempts to resolve the TOT. A question that has been discussed recently is whether phonologically similar words block or facilitate lexical retrieval. A study at Frankfurt University (cf. Hofferberth 2008) found that participants preferred searching for their intended word by a semantic search strategy instead of a phonological one.