brown mcneill 1966

8/11/2019 Brown Mcneill 1966

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J O U R N A L O F V E R B AL L E AR N IN G A N D V E R BA L B E R AV I OR 5 , 3 2 5 - 3 3 7 1 9 6 6 )

The T ip of the Ton gue Phenomenon

ROGER BROWN AND DAVID McNEILL 1

Harvard University Cambridge Massachusetts

The tip of the tongue (TOT) phenomenon is a state in which one cannot quite

recall a familiar word but can recall words of similar form and meaning. Several hundred

such states were precipitated by reading to Ss the definitions of English words of low

frequency and asking them to try to recall the words. It was demonstrated that while in

the TOT state, and before recall occurred, Ss had knowledge of some of the letters in the

missing word, the number of syllables in it, and the location of the primary stress. The

nearer S was to successful recall the more accurate the information he possessed. The re-

call of parts of words and attributes of Words is termed generic recall. The interpreta-

tion offered for generic recall involves the assumption that users of a language possess the

mental equivalent of a dictionary. The features tha t figure in generic recall may be

entered in the dictionary sooner than other features and so, perhaps, are wired into a

more elaborate associative network. These more easi ly retrieved features of low-

frequency words may be the features to which we chiefly attend in word-perception.

lnae features favored by attention, especially the beginnings and endings of words,

appear to carry more information than the features that are not favored, in particular

the middles of words.

Willi am James wrote, in 1893: Suppose

we try to recall a forgotten name. The state

of our consciousness is peculiar. There is a

gap therein; but no mere gap. It is a gap

that is intensel y active. A sort of wraith of

the n ame is in it, becko ning us in a given

direction, making us at moments tingle with

the sense of our closeness and then letting

us sink back without the longed-for term. If

wrong names are proposed to us, this singu-

larly definite gap acts immediately so as to

negate them. They do not fit into its mould.

And the gap of one word does not feel like

the gap of another, all empty of content as

both might seem necessarily to be when de-

scribed as gaps (p. 251).

The tip of the tongue (T OT) state in-

volves a failure to recall a word of which one

has knowledge. The evidence of knowledge is

either a n e vent ually successful recall or else

an act of recognition that occurs, without

Now at the University of Michigan.

1 9 6 6 b y A c a d e m i c P r e ss I n c .

additional training, when recall has failed.

The class of cases defined by the conjunction

of knowledge and a failure of recall is a

large one. The TOT state, which James de-

scribed, seems to be a small subclass in which

recall is felt to be imminent.

For several months we watched for TOT

states in ourselves. Unable to recall the name

of the street on which a relative lives, one

of us thought of

Congress

and

Cor in th

and

Concord

and then looked up the address

and learned that it was

Cornish.

The words

that had come to mind have certain proper-

ties in common with the word that had been

sought (the target word ): all four begin

with

Co;

all are two-syllable words; all put

the primary stress on the first syllable. After

this experience we began putting direct ques-

tions to ourselves when we fell into the TOT

state, questions as to the number of syllables

in the t arget word, its in itial letter, etc.

Woodworth (1934), before us, made a

record of data for natu rally occurring TO T

325


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326 BRO WN A ND MC N EI LL

s t a t e s a n d W e n z l ( 1 9 3 2 , 1 9 3 6 ) d i d t h e sa m e

f o r G e r m a n w o r d s . T h e i r r e s u l t s a r e s i m i l a r

t o t h o s e w e o b t a i n e d a n d c o n s i s t e n t w i t h t h e

f o ll o w in g p r e l i m i n a r y c h a r a c t e ri z a t i o n . W h e n

c o m p l e t e r e c a l l o f a w o r d i s n o t p r e s e n t l y

p o s s i b l e b u t i s f e l t t o b e i m m i n e n t , o n e c a n

o f t e n c o r r e c t l y re c a l l t h e g e n e r a l t y p e o f t h e

w o r d ; g e n e r i c r e c a l l m a y s u c c e e d w h e n p a r -

t i c u l a r r e c a l l f a il s . T h e r e s e e m t o b e t w o

c o m m o n v a r i e t i e s o f g e n e r i c re c a l l . ( a )

S o m e t i m e s a p a r t o f t h e t a r g e t w o r d i s

r e c a l l e d , a l e t t e r o r t w o , a s y l l a b l e , o r a f f ix .

P a r t i a l r e c a l l is n e c e s s a r i l y a l s o g e n e r i c s i n c e

t h e c l a s s o f w o r d s d e f i n e d b y t h e p o s s e s s i o n

o f a n y

p a r t

o f t h e t a r g e t w o r d w i l l i n c l u d e

w o r d s o t h e r t h a n t h e t a r g e t . ( b ) S o m e t i m e s

t h e a b s t r a c t f o r m o f t h e t a r g e t i s r e c a l l e d ,

p e r h a p s t h e f a c t t h a t i t w a s a t w o - s y l l a b l e

s e q u e n c e w i t h t h e p r i m a r y s t r e s s o n t h e f i r st

s y l l a b l e . T h e w h o l e w o r d i s r e p r e s e n t e d i n

a b s t r a c t f o r m r e c a l l b u t n o t o n t h e l e t t e r -

b y - l e t t e r le v e l t h a t c o n s t i t u t e s i t s i d e n t i t y .

T h e r e c a l l o f a n a b s t r a c t f o r m i s a ls o n e c e s -

s a r i l y

g e n e r i c ,

s i n c e a n y s u c h f o r m d e f i n e s a

c l a s s o f w o r d s e x t e n d i n g b e y o n d t h e t a r g e t .

W e n z l a n d W o o d w o r t h h a d w o r k e d w i th

s m a l l c o l l e c t i o n s o f d a t a f o r n a t u r a l l y o c -

c u r r i n g T O T s t a te s . T h e s e d a t a w e r e , fo r

t h e m o s t p a r t , p r o v i d e d b y t h e i n v e s t i g a t o r s ;

w e r e c o l le c t e d i n a n u n s y s t e m a t i c f a s h i o n ;

a n d w e r e a n a l y z e d i n a n i m p r e s s i o n i s t i c n o n -

q u a n t i t a t i v e w a y . I t s e e m e d t o u s t h a t s u c h

d a t a l e f t t h e f a c t s o f g e n e r i c r e c a l l i n d o u b t .

A n o c c a s i o n a l c o r r e s p o n d e n c e b e t w e e n a r e -

t r i e v e d w o r d a n d a t a r g e t w o r d w i t h r e s p e c t

t o n u m b e r o f s y l l a b l e s , s t r e s s p a t t e r n o r i n i -

t i a l l e t t e r i s , a f t e r a l l , t o b e e x p e c t e d b y

c h a n c e . S e v e r a l m o n t h s o f s e l f - o b s e r v a t i o n

a n d a s k i n g - o u r - f r i e n d s y i e l d e d f e w e r t h a n a

d o z e n g o o d c a s e s a n d w e r e a l i z e d t h a t a n

i m p r o v e d m e t h o d o f d a t a c o l le c t io n w as

e s s e n t i a l .

W e t h o u g h t i t m i g h t p a y t o p r o s p e c t

f o r T O T s t a t e s b y r e a d i n g t o S d e f i n i t i o n s

o f u n c o m m o n E n g l i s h w o r d s a n d a s k i n g h i m

t o s u p p l y t h e w o r d s . T h e p r o c e d u r e w a s

g i v e n a p r e l i m i n a r y t e s t w i t h n i n e S s w h o

w e r e i n d i v i d u a l l y i n t e r v i e w e d f o r 2 h r s e a c h . 2

I n 5 7 in s t a n c e s a n S w a s , i n fa c t , s e i z e d

b y a T O T s t a t e . T h e s i g n s o f i t w e r e u n -

m i s t a k a b l e ; h e w o u l d a p p e a r t o b e in m i l d

t o r m e n t , s o m e t h i n g l i k e t h e b r i n k o f a

s n e e z e, a n d i f h e f o u n d t h e w o r d h i s r e l ie f

w a s c o n s i d e r a b l e . W h i l e s e a r c h i n g f o r t h e

t a r g e t S t o l d u s a ll t h e w o r d s t h a t c a m e t o

h i s m i n d . H e v o l u n t e e r ed t h e i n f o r m a t i o n

t h a t s o m e o f th e m r e s e m b l e d t h e t a r g e t i n

s o u n d b u t n o t i n m e a n i n g ; o t h e r s h e w as

s u r e w e r e s i m i l a r in m e a n i n g b u t n o t i n

s o u n d . T h e E i n t r u d e d o n S 's a g o n y w i th

t w o q u e s t i o n s : ( a ) H o w m a n y s y l l a b l e s h a s

t h e t a r g e t w o r d ? ( b ) W h a t i s i t s f i rs t l e t t e r ?

A n s w e r s t o t h e f i r s t q u e s t i o n w e r e c o r r e c t

i n 4 7 % o f a ll ca s e s a n d a n s w e r s t o t h e

s e c o n d q u e s t i o n w e r e c o r r e c t in 5 1 % o f t h e

c a s e s . T h e s e o u t c o m e s e n c o u r a g e d u s t o b e -

l i e v e t h a t g e n e r i c r e c a l l w a s r e a l a n d t o d e -

v i s e a g r o u p p r o c e d u r e t h a t w o u l d f u r t h e r

s p e e d u p t h e r a t e o f d a t a c o l l e c t i o n .

METH O D

S u b j e c t s

Fi f ty- s ix H ar v ar d and Radcl if fe under gr adua tes

par t ic ipa ted in one of three evening sess ions; each

sess ion was 2 hrs long. The Ss were volunteers

f rom a large General Education Course and were

paid for their t ime.

Word List . The list consisted of 49 words which,

according to the Thorndike-Lorge W o r d B o o k

(1952) occur at leas t once per four mil l ion words

but not so of ten as once per one mil l ion words .

The level is suggested by these examples: apse ,

nepotism, c loa ca, am berg ris , a n d sampan. W e

though t the w ords used were likely to be in the

passive or recognit ion vocabu lar ies of ou r Ss bu t

not in their active recall vocabularies. There were

6 words of 1 syl lable; 19 of 2 syl lables ; 20 of 3

syllables ; 4 of 4 syl lables . For each word we used

a definition from The American Co llege Dictionary

(Barnha r t , 1948 ) edited so as to contain no w ords

that closely resembled the one being defined.

Response Sheet. T he

response sheet was la id

off in vertical columns headed as follows:

Intended word d- One I was thinking of ) .

- - N o t ) .

2 We wish to thank M r. Char les Ho llen for

doing the pretes t interviews.


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a T I P O F T H E T O N G U E P H E N O M E N O N 3 7

Nu mb er o] sy llab les 1 -5) .

Initial le tter .

Words oJ s imilar sound. (1 . Closest in so und )

2 . Mid d le )

(3 . F a r th e s t i n S o u n d )

Words oJ s imilar meaning .

Wo r d y o u h a d in m in d i ] n o t i n t e n d e d w o r d .

P r o c e d u r e

W e i n s t r u c t e d S s t o t h e f o l l o w i n g e f f e c t .

I n t h i s e x p e r i m e n t w e a r e c o n c e r n e d w i t h t h a t

s t a t e o f m i n d i n w h i c h a p e r s o n is u n a b l e t o

t h i n k o f a w o r d t h a t h e i s c e r t a in h e k n o w s , t h e

s t a t e o f m i n d i n w h i c h a w o r d s e e m s t o b e o n

t h e t i p o f o n e ' s to n g u e . O u r t e c h n i q u e f o r p r e -

c i p i t a t i n g s u c h s t a t e s i s , i n g e n e r a l , t o r e a d d e f t -

n i fi o n s o f u n c o m m o n w o r d s a n d a s k t h e s u b je c t

t o r e c a l l t h e w o r d .

( 1 ) W e w i l l f i r s t r e a d t h e d e f i n i t i o n o f a l o w -

f r e q u e n c y w o r d .

( 2 ) I f y o u s h o u l d h a p p e n t o k n o w t h e w o r d

a t o n c e , o r t h i n k y o u d o , o r , i f y o u s h o u l d s i m p l y

n o t k n o w i t, t h e n t h e r e i s n o t h i n g f u r t h e r f o r

y o u t o d o a t t h e m o m e n t . 5 u s t w a i t.

( 3 ) I f y o u a r e u n a b l e t o t h i n k o f t h e w o r d

b u t f e el s u r e t h a t y o u k n o w i t a n d t h a t i t is o n

t h e v e rg e o f c o m i n g b a c k t o y o u t h e n y o u a r e

i n a T O T s t a t e a n d s h o u l d b e g i n a t o n c e t o f i l l

i n t h e c o l u m n s o f t h e r e s p o n s e s h e e t.

( 4 ) A f t e r r e a d i n g e a c h d e f i n i t io n w e w i l l a s k

w h e t h e r a n y o n e i s i n th e T O T s t at e . A n y o n e w h o

i s i n t h a t s t a t e s h o u l d r a is e h i s h a n d . T h e r e s t o f

u s w il l t h e n w a i t u n t i l t h o s e i n t h e T O T s t a t e

h a v e w r i t t e n o n t h e a n s w e r s h e e t a l l t h e i n f o r m a -

t i o n t h e y a r e a b l e t o p r o v i d e .

( 5 ) W h e n e v e r y o n e w h o h a s b e en in t h e T O T

s t a t e h a s s i g n a l l e d u s t o p r o c e e d , w e w i l l r e a d

t h e t a r g e t w o r d . A t t h i s t i m e , e v e r y o n e i s t o

w r i t e t h e w o r d i n t h e l e f t m o s t c o l u m n o f t h e

r e sp o n s e s he e t. T h o s e o f y o u w h o h a v e k n o w n

t h e w o r d s i n c e fi r s t i t s d e f i n i ti o n w a s r e a d a r e

a s k e d n o t t o w r i te i t u n t i l t h i s p o in t . T h o s e o f

y o u w h o s i m p l y d i d n o t k n o w t h e w o r d o r w h o

h a d t h o u g h t o f a d i f f e re n t w o r d w i l l w r it e n o w

t h e w o r d w e r e a d . F o r t h o s e o f y o u w h o h a v e

b e e n i n t h e T O T s t a t e t w o e v e n t u a l i t i e s a r e p o s -

s ib l e. T h e w o r d r e a d m a y s t ri k e y o u a s d e f in i t e ly

t h e w o r d y o u h a v e b e e n s e e k i n g . I n t h a t c a s e

p l e a se w r i t e ' + ' a f t e r t h e w o r d , a s t h e i n s t r u c -

t i o n s a t t h e h e a d o f t h e c o l u m n d i r e c t. T h e o t h e r

p o s s i b i l i t y i s t h a t y o u w i l l n o t b e s u r e w h e t h e r

t h e w o r d r e a d i s t h e o n e y o u h a v e b e e n s e e k i n g

o r , i n d e e d , y o u m a y b e s u r e t h a t i t i s n o t . I n t h i s

c a s e y o u a r e a s k e d t o w r i t e t h e s i g n ' - - ' a f t e r

t h e w o rd . S o m e t i m e s w h e n t h e w o r d r e a d o u t

i s n o t t h e o n e y o u h a v e b e e n s e e k i n g y o u r a c t u a l

t a r g e t m a y c o m e t o m i n d . I n t h i s c a se , i n a d d i -

t i o n t o t h e m i n u s s i g n i n t h e l e f t m o s t c o l u m n ,

p l e a se w r i te t h e a c t u a l t a r g e t w o r d i n t h e r i g h t -

m o s t c o l u m n .

( 6 ) N o w w e c o m e t o t h e c o l u m n e n t r ie s

t h e m s e l v e s . T h e f i r s t t w o e n t r i e s , t h e g u e s s a s to

t h e n u m b e r o f s y l l a b l e s a n d t h e i n i t i a l le t t e r , a r e

r e q u i r e d . T h e r e m a i n i n g e n t r i e s s h o u l d b e f i l l e d

o u t i f p o s si b le . W h e n y o u a r e i n a T O T s t a t e ,

w o r d s t h a t a r e r e l a t e d t o t h e t a r g e t w o r d . d o

a l m o s t a l w a y s c o m e t o m i n d . L i st t h e m a s t h e y

c o m e , b u t s e p a r a t e w o r d s w h i c h y o u t h i n k r e -

s e m b l e t h e t a r g e t i n s o u n d f r o m w o r d s w h i c h y o u

t h i n k r e s e m b l e t h e t a r g e t i n m e a n i n g .

( 7 ) W h e n y o u h a v e f i n i sh e d a l l y o u r e n t r ie s ,

b u t b e f o r e y o u s i g n a l u s t o r e a d t h e i n t e n d e d

t a r g e t w o r d , l o ok a g a i n a t t h e w o r d s y o u h a v e

l i s t e d a s ' W o r d s o f s i m i l a r s o u n d . ' I f p o s s i b l e ,

r a n k t h e se , a s t h e in s t r u c t i o n s a t t h e h e a d o f t h e

c o l u m n d i r e c t , i n t e r m s o f t h e d e g r e e o f t h e i r

s e e m i n g r e s e m b l a n c e t o t h e t a r g e t . T h i s m u s t b e

d o n e w i t h o u t k n o w l e d g e o f w h a t t h e t a r g e t a c -

t u a l l y i s .

( 8 ) T h e s e a r c h p r o c e d u r e o f a p e r so n in t h e

T O T s t a t e w i l l so m e t i m e s se r v e t o r e t ri e v e t h e

m i s s i n g w o r d b e f o r e h e h a s f i n i s h e d f i ll i n g i n t h e

c o l u m n s a n d b e fo r e w e r e a d o u t t h e w o r d . W h e n

t h i s h a p p e n s p l ea s e m a r k t h e p l a ce w h e r e i t

h a p p e n s w i t h t h e w o r d s G o t i t a n d d o n o t

prov ide any more da ta .

R E S U L T S

C l a s s es o f D a t a

T h e r e w e r e 3 6 0 i n s t a n c e s, a c ro s s a ll w o r d s a n d

a l l S s , i n w h i c h a T O T s t a t e w a s s i g n a l l e d . O f

t h i s t o t a l , 2 3 3 w e r e p o s i t i v e T O T s . A p o s i t i v e T O T

i s o n e fo r w h i c h t h e t a r g e t w o r d i s k n o w n a n d ,

c o n s e q u e n t l y , o n e f o r w h i c h t h e d a t a o b t a i n e d c a n

b e s c o re d a s a c c u r a t e o r i n a c c u r a t e . I n t h o s e c a s e s

w h e r e t h e t a r g e t w a s n o t t h e w o r d i n t e n d e d b u t

s o m e o t h e r w o r d w h i c h S f i n a l l y r e c a l l e d a n d w r o t e

i n t h e r i g h t m o s t c o l u m n h i s d a t a w e r e c h e c k e d

a g a i n s t t h a t w o r d , h i s e ff e c t i v e t a r g e t . A n e g a t i v e

T O T i s o n e f o r w h i c h t h e S j u d g e d t h e w o r d r e a d

o u t n o t t o h a v e b e e n h i s t a r g e t a n d , i n a d d i t i o n ,

o n e in w h i c h S p r o v e d u n a b l e t o r e c a ll h i s o w n

f u n c t i o n a l t a r g e t .

T h e d a t a p r o v i d e d b y S w h i l e h e se a r c h e d f o r

t h e t a r g e t w o r d a r e o f t w o k i n d s : e x p l i c i t g u e s s e s

a s to t h e n u m b e r o f s y l la b l e s i n t h e t a r g e t a n d t h e

i n it ia l le t t e r o f t h e t a r g e t ; w o r d s t h a t c a m e t o m i n d

w h i l e h e s e a r c h e d f o r t h e t a rg e t . T h e w o r d s t h a t

c a m e t o m i n d w e r e c l a s s if i e d b y S i n t o 2 2 4 w o r d s

s i m i l a r i n s o u n d to th e t a r g e t ( h e r e a f t e r c a l l e d S S

w o r d s ) a n d 9 5 w o r d s s i m i la r in m e a n i n g t o t h e


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328 BROWN AND MC NEILL

ta rge t (hereaf te r ca l led SM words ) . The S 's in-

format ion about the number of sy l lab les in , and

the in i t ia l le t te r of the ta rge t may be infe rred f rom

correspondences be tween the ta rge t and h is SS words

as well as d irectly discovered: fro m his explicit

guesses. For his knowledge of the stress pattern of

the ta rge t and of le t te rs in the ta rge t , o ther than

the in i t ia l le t te r , we must re ly on the SS words

alone since explicit guesses were not required.

To convey a sense of the SS and SM words we

offe r the fo l lowing examples. When the ta rge t was

sampan

the SS words (not a l l o f them rea l words)

included:

Saipan, Siam, Cheyenne, sarong, sanching,

a n d sympoon. The SM words were : barge, house-

boat, a n d junk. Wh e n th e t a rg e t w a s caduceus the

SS words included: Casadesus, AescheIus, cephalus,

a n d

leucosis. The

SM words were :

fasces, Hippo-

crates, lictor,

a n d

snake.

The spelling in all cases

is S's own.

We wil l , in th is report , use the SM words to

provide base l ine da ta aga inst which to eva lua te

the accuracy of the explicit guesses and of the SS

words. The SM words a re words produced under

the spe l l of the posi t ive TOT sta te but judged by

S to resemble the ta rge t in meaning ra ther than

sound. We are qui te sure tha t the SM words a re

somewhat more l ike the ta rge t than would be a

col lec t ion of words produced by Ss wi th no knowl-

edge of the ta rge t . However , the SM words make

a be t te r compara t ive base l ine than any o ther da ta

we collected.

Ge ne ra l Prob l e ms o / Ana l y s i s

The da ta present problems of ana lysis tha t a r e

not common in psychology. To begin wi th , the

words of the l i s t d id not re l iab ly prec ip i ta te

T T

states. Of the original 49 words, all but

zither

suc-

ceeded at least once; the range was from one success

to n ine . The Ss made ac tua l ta rge ts of 51 words

not on the or ig ina l l i s t and a l l but f ive of these

were pursued by one S only . Clear ly none of the

100 words came even close to precipitating a TOT

sta te in a l l 56 Ss. Fur thermore , the Ss var ied in

the i r suscept ib i l i ty to TOT sta tes . There were n ine

who exper ienced none a t a l l in a 2-hr per iod; the

la rgest number exper ienced in such a per iod by one

S was e ight . In out da ta , then , the ent r ies for one

word wi l l not usua l ly involve the same Ss or even

the same number of Ss as the ent r ies for another

word . The entr ies for one S need not involve the

same words or even the same number of words as

the ent r ies for another S . Consequent ly for the tests

we shall want to make there are no significance tests

tha t we can be sure a re appropria te .

In s ta t i s t ica l theory our problem is ca l led the

fragm entary da ta problem. ' ,~ The best th ing to do

with f ragmentary da ta i s to report them very fu l ly

and ana lyze them in severa l d i f fe rent ways. Our

de ta i led knowledge of these da ta suggests tha t

the problems a re not se r ious for , whi le there i s

some var ia t ion in the pul l of words and the sus-

cept ib i l i ty of Ss there i s not much var ia t ion in the

qua l i ty of the da ta . The charac te r of the mater ia l

reca l led is much the same from word to word and

S t o S .

N u m b e r o f S y l l a b l e s

A s t h e m a i n i t e m o f e v id e n c e t h a t S i n a

T O T s t a t e c a n r e c a ll w i t h s i g n i f i c a n t s u c c es s

t h e n u m b e r o f s y l la b l e s in a t a r g e t w o r d h e

h a s n o t y e t f o u n d w e o f fe r T a b l e 1. T h e

e n t r i e s o n t h e d i a g o n a l a r e i n s t a n c e s i n w h i c h

g u e s s e s w e r e c o r r ec t . T h e o r d e r o f t h e m e a n s

o f t h e e x p l i c i t g u e s s e s is t h e s a m e a s t h e

o r d e r o f t h e a c t u a l n u m b e r s o f s y l la b l e s in

t h e t a r g e t w o rd s . T h e r a n k o r d e r c o r r e l a t i o n

b e t w e e n t h e t w o is 1 .0 a n d s u c h a c o r r e l a t i o n

i s s i g n i f i c a n t w i t h a p < . 00 1 ( o n e - t a i l e d )

e v e n w h e n o n l y f i ve i t e m s a r e c o r r e l a t e d . T h e

m o d e s o f t h e g u e s se s c o r r e s p o n d e x a c t l y w i t h

t h e a c t u a l n u m b e r s o f s yl l a bl e s , f o r t h e

v a l u e s o n e t h r o u g h t h r e e ; f o r w o r d s o f f o u r

a n d f iv e s y l l a b l e s th e m o d e s c o n t i n u e t o b e

t h r e e .

W h e n a l l T O T s a r e c o m b i n e d , t h e c o n t ri -

b u t i o n s t o t h e t o t a l e f f e c ts o f i n d i v i d u a l

S s a n d o f i n d i v i d u a l w o r d s a r e u n e q u a l . W e

h a v e m a d e a n a n a l y s i s i n w h i c h e a c h w o r d

c o u n t s b u t o n c e . T h i s w a s a c c o m p l i s h e d b y

c a l c u l a t i n g t h e m e a n o f t h e g u es s e s m a d e b y

a l l S s f o r w h o m a p a r t i c u l a r w o r d p r e c i p i -

t a t e d a T O T s t a t e a n d t a k i n g t h a t m e a n a s

t h e s co r e f o r t h a t w o r d . T h e n e w m e a n s c a l-

c u l a t e d w i t h a l l w o r d s e q u a l l y w e i g h t e d w e r e ,

i n o r d e r : 1 . 6 2 ; 2 . 3 0 ; 2 . 8 0 ; 3 . 3 3 ; a n d 3 . 5 0 .

T h e s e v a l u e s a r e c l o s e t o t h o s e of T a b l e 1

a n d rho w i t h t h e a c t u a l n u m b e r s o f s y ll a b l e s

c o n t i n u e s t o b e 1 . 0 .

W e a l so m a d e a n a n a l y s i s i n w h i c h e a c h S

c o u n t s b u t o n c e . T h i s w a s d o n e b y c a l c u l a t -

i n g th e m e a n o f a n S s g u e s s e s f o r a l l w o r d s

3 We ~4sh to than k Professor Freder ick Moste l -

le r for d iscussing the f ragmentary da ta problem

with us.


5/13

TIP OF THE TONGUE PHENOMENON 329

TABLE 1

ACTUAL NUMBERS OF SYLLABLES AND GUESSED

NUMBERS FOR LL TO Ts n r aE MA~N EXPERn~E~rr

Guessed numbers No

1 2 3 4 5 guess Mode Mean

1 9 7 1 0 0 0 1 1.53

~ 2 2 55 22 2 1 5 2 2.33

= 3 3 19 61 10 1 5 3 2.86

d 4 0 2 12 6 2 3 3 3.36

5 0 0 3 0 1 1 3 3.50

of one s y l l ab l e , t he m ean fo r a l l words o f

t w o s y l l a b l e s , e t c . I n c o m p a r i n g t h e m e a n s

o f gues s es fo r word s o f d i f f e ren t l eng t h one

c a n o n l y u s e t h o s e S s w h o m a d e a t l e a s t

o n e g u e s s f o r e a c h a c t u a l l e n g t h t o b e

c o m p a r e d . I n t h e p r e s e n t d a t a o n l y w o r d s

o f t wo s y l l ab l es and t h ree s y l l ab l es p re -

c i p i t a t e d e n o u g h T O T s t o y i e l d a s u b -

s t a n t ia l n u m b e r o f s u c h m a t c h e d s c o r es .

T h e r e w e r e 2 1 S s w h o m a d e g u e s s e s f o r b o t h

t wo-s y l l ab l e and t h ree - s y l l ab l e words . The

s i m p l es t way t o eva l ua t e t he s i gn i f i cance o f

t he d i f f e rences i n t hes e gues s es i s w i t h t he

S i g n T e s t . I n o n l y 6 o f 2 1 m a t c h e d s c o r e s

was t he m ean gues s fo r words o f t wo s y l -

l a b l e s l a r g e r t h a n t h e m e a n f o r w o r d s o f

t h ree s y l l ab les . Th e d i f f e rence i s s i gn i f ican t

wi t h a p ~ - - - .039 (one - t a i l ed ) . F o r ac t ua l

w o r d s t h a t w e r e o n l y o n e s y l l a b l e a p a r t i n

l eng t h , S s were ab l e t o m ake a s i gn i f i can t

d i s t i n c t i o n i n t h e c o r r e c t d i r e c t i o n w h e n t h e

words t hem s e l ves cou l d no t be ca l l ed t o m i nd .

T h e 2 2 4 S S w o r d s a n d t h e 9 5 S M w o r d s

p r o v i d e s u p p o r t i n g e v i d e n c e . W o r d s o f s i m -

i l a r s o u n d ( S S ) h a d t h e s a m e n u m b e r o f

s y l l ab l es a s t he t a rge t i n 48% o f a l l cas es .

T h i s v a l u e i s c l o s e t o t h e 5 7 % t h a t w e r e

co r rec t fo r exp l i c i t gues s es i n t he m a i n ex -

p e r i m e n t a n d s t i l l c l o s e r t o t h e 4 7 ~ c o r r e c t

a l r e a d y r e p o r t e d f o r t h e p r e t e s t . T h e S M

w o r d s p r o v i d e a c l e a r c o n t r a s t ; o n l y 2 0 %

m a t c h e d t h e n u m b e r o f s y l l a b l e s i n t h e t a r -

~ g e t . W e c o n c l u d e t h a t S i n a p o s i t i v e T O T

s t a t e has a s i gn i f i can t ab i l i t y t o r eca l l co r -

r e c t l y t h e n u m b e r o f s y l l a b l e s i n t h e w o r d

he i s t ry i ng t o r e t r i eve .

I n T a b l e 1 i t c a n b e s e e n t h a t t h e m o d e s

o f g u e s s e s e x a c t l y c o r r e s p o n d w i t h t h e a c -

t u a l n u m b e r s o f s y l l a b l e s i n t a r g e t w o r d s f o r

t he va l ues one t h rough t h ree . F o r s t i l l l onger

t a r g e t w o r d s ( f o u r a n d f iv e s y l la b l e s ) t h e

m e a n s o f g u e s s e s c o n t i n u e t o r i s e b u t t h e

m o d e s s t a y a t t h e v a l u e t h r e e . W o r d s o f

m o r e t h a n t h r e e s y l l a b l e s a r e r a r e i n E n -

g l i s h a n d t h e g e n e r i c e n t r y f o r s u c h w o r d s

m a y b e t h e s a m e a s f o r w o r d s o f t h r e e

s y l la b l e s; s o m e t h i n g li k e t h r e e o r m o r e

m a y b e u s e d f o r a l l l o n g w o r d s .

n i t i a l L e t t e r

Over a l l pos i t i ve TOTs , t he i n i t i a l l e t t e r

o f t h e w o r d S w a s s e e k i n g w a s c o r r e c t l y

g u e s s e d 5 7 % o f t h e t i m e . T h e p r e t e s t r e -

s u l t w a s 5 1 % c o r r e c t . T h e r e s u l ts f r o m t h e

m a i n e x p e r i m e n t w e r e a n a l y z e d w i t h e a c h

w o r d c o u n t i n g j u s t o n c e b y e n t e r i n g a w o r d ' s

s c o re a s c o r r e c t w h e n e v e r t h e m o s t c o m -

m o n g u e s s o r t h e o n l y g u e s s w a s i n f a c t

c o r r e c t ; 6 2 % o f w o r d s w e r e , b y t h is r e c k o n -

i n g, c o r r e c t l y g u e s se d . T h e S S w o r d s h a d

i n i t i a l l e t t e r s m a t ch i ng t he i n i t i a l l e t t e r s o f

t h e t a r g e t w o r d s i n 4 9 % o f a ll c a se s . W e d o

no t know t he chance l eve l o f s ucces s fo r t h i s

p e r f o r m a n c e b u t w i th 2 6 le t te r s a n d m a n y

w o r d s t h a t b e g a n w i t h u n c o m m o n l e t t e r s

t h e l e v e l m u s t b e l o w . P r o b a b l y t h e r e s u l t s

f o r t h e S M w o r d s a r e b e t t e r t h a n c h a n c e

a n d y e t t h e o u t c o m e f o r t h e s e w o r d s w a s

o n l y 8 % m a t c h e s.

W e d i d a n a n a l y s i s o f t h e S S a n d S M

w o r d s , w i t h e a c h S c o u n t i n g j u s t o n c e . T h e r e

w e r e 2 6 S s w h o h a d a t l e a s t o n e s u c h w o r d .

F o r e a c h S w e c a l c u l a t e d t h e p r o p o r t i o n o f

S S words m a t ch i ng t he t a rge t i n i n i t i a l l e t t e r

a n d t h e s a m e p r o p o r t i o n f o r S M w o r d s . F o r

2 1 S s t h e p r o p o r t i o n s w e r e n o t t i e d a n d i n

a l l bu t 3 cas es t he l a rge r va l ue was t ha t o f

t he S S words . Th e d i f f e rence i s s ign i f i can t

by S i gn T es t w i t h p ~ --- . 001 (one - t a i l ed ) .

T h e e v i d e n c e f o r s i g n i f i c a n t ly a c c u r a t e

gener i c r eca l l o f i n i t a l l e t t e r s i s even s t ronger

t han fo r s y l l ab l es . The abs o l u t e l eve l s o f s uc -

ces s a r e s i m i l a r bu t t he chance bas e l i ne


6/13

330 BROWN AND MC NEIL L

must be much lower for le t ters than for syl -

lables because the possibil i t ies are more

num e r ous .

Syllabic Stress

We did not ask S to guess the s t ress pat -

tern of the target word but the SS words

provide relevant data . The tes t was l imi ted

to the syl labic locat ion of the pr imary or

heaviest s tress for which The American Col

lege Dictionary was our au thor i ty . The num-

ber of SS words that could be used was

l imi ted by three cons iderat ions . a) W ords

of one syl lable had to be excluded because

there was no poss ibi li ty of var iat ion. b)

Stress locat ions could only be matched i f

the SS word had the same number of syl -

lables as the target, and so only such match-

ing words could be used. c) Inven ted words

and foreign words could not be used because

they do not appear in the dict ionary. Only

49 SS words remained.

As i t happened al l of the target words in-

volved whate ver thei r length) placed the

primary stress on either the f irst or the sec-

ond syllable. I t was possible, therefore, to

ma ke a 2 X 2 table fo r the 49 pairs of tar-

get and SS words which would reveal the

correspondences and noncorrespondences . As

can be seen in Table 2 the SS words tended

to stress the same syllable as the target

words. The X for this table is 10.96 and that

value is s ignificant with p < .001. Ho wev er,

the data do not meet the independence re-

quirement , so we cannot be sure that the

matching tendency is s ignif icant . There

were no t enough da ta to permi t any o ther

analyses , and so we are lef t suspect ing that S

TABLE 2

SYLLABLES RECEIVING PRIIVfARY STRESS

IN

TARGET

WORDS AND WORDS

Target words

1st syllable 2nd syllable

1st syllab le 25

6

u~ 2nd syl labl e 6 12

in a TOT s tate has knowledge of the s t ress

pat tern of the target , but we are not sure

of i t .

Letters in Various Positions

We did not require explicit guesses for let-

ters in pos i t ions other than the f i r s t , but the

SS words provide relevant data . The tes t

was l imited to the following posit ions: f irs t ,

second, third, third-last , second-last , and last .

A target word must have at leas t s ix le t ters

in order to provide data on the s ix pos i t ions ;

i t might have any number of le t ters larger

than s ix and s t i l l provide data for the s ix

relat ively def ined) pos i t ions . Accordingly

we included the data for a l l target words

having s ix or more le t ters .

Figure 1 displays the percentages of le t -

ters in each of s ix posit ions of SS words

which matched the le t ters in the same pos i -

t ions of the corresponding targets . For com-

par ison purposes these data are also provided

for SM words. The SS curve is at all points

above the SM curve; the two are closes t

together a t the thi rd- las t pos i t ion. The values

for the last three posit ions of the SS curve

qui te c losely match the values for the f i r s t

three pos i t ions . The values for the las t three

pos i t ions of the SM curve, on the other hand,

are well above the values for the f irst three

0.55 -- o==- o Words s /m//or in sound {SS)

o- -- o Words s imilar in meon/no( Ml l

0.50 -

I

0.45

0 . 4 0

0 . 3 5 --

u_

o 0.3 0 --

~o 2s

0 20

- . , , , , / -

~o ~5

I

n- I --

u.J 0.I0 - -- --- o,, I

n

0 . 0 5

~,,~I

o oo I I T I I I

1st 2 nd 3 rd 3 rd 2 nd Last

Las t Las t

P O S I T I O N I N W O R D

FIG. 1. Percentages of letter match es be tween

target words and SS words for six serial positions.


7/13

TIP OF THE TONGUE PHENOMENON 331

posit ions. Consequently the

relative

superior-

i ty of the SS curve is greater in the first

three posi t ions.

The le t te r-posi t ion da ta were a l so analyzed

in such a way as to count each ta rge t word

just once, assigning each posit ion in the tar-

get a single score representing the proport ion

of matches across a l l Ss for tha t posi t ion in

tha t word . The order of the SS and SM

points is preserved in this finer analysis. We

did Sign Tests comparing the SS and SM

values for each of the six posi t ions. As Fig. 1

would suggest the SS values for the first three

posit ions al l exceeded the SM values with

p's less than .01 ( one-t ai led). Th e SS values

for the final two posit ions exceeded the SM

values with p 's less than .05 (one-tai led).

The SS values for the third-last posi t ion were

grea ter than the SM values bu t no t s ign i f i -

can t ly so .

The cause of the upswing in the final

three posi t ions of the SM curve may be

some difference in the distribution of in-

format ion in ear ly and la te posi t ions of En-

g l i sh words . Probably there i s less var ie ty

in the la ter posi t ions . In any case the fac t

tha t the SS curve l ies above the SM curve

for the last three posi t ions indicates that S

in a TOT sta te has knowledge of the ta rge t

in addit ion to his knowledge of English word

st ruc ture .

Chunking of Su~xes

The request to S that he guess the ini t ial

let ter of the target occasionally el ici ted a

response of more than one le t te r ; e .g . ,

ex

in the case of extort and con in the case of

convene. This resu l t suggested tha t some

le t te r (or phoneme) sequences are s tored as

s ing le en t r ies having been chun ked by long

experience . We made only one tes t for chunk-

ing and that involved three-let ter suffixes.

I t d id no t o f ten happen tha t an S produced

an SS word tha t matched the ta rge t wi th

respect to al l of i ts three last let ters. The

quest ion asked of the da ta was whether

such three- le t te r matches occurred more of ten

when the let ters consti tuted an English suffix

than when they d id no t . In order to de ter-

mine which of the ta rge t words te rminated

in such a suffix, we entered The American

College Dictionary

with f ina l t r ig rams. I f

there was an e ntry describing a suffix ap-

propria te to the grammat ica l and semant ic

propert ies of the ta rge t we considered the

trigram to be a suffix. There were 20 words

that terminated in a suffix, including fawn-

ing unctuous an d philatelist.

Of 93 SS words produced in response to

a target terminating in a suffix, 30 matched

the target in their final three let ters. Of 130

SS words supplied in response to a target

that did not terminate in a suffix only 5

matched the target in their final three let-

te rs . The da ta were a l so analyzed in a way

that counts each S jus t once and uses on ly Ss

who produced SS words in response to bo th

kinds of ta rge t . A Sign Test was made of the

difference between matches of svffixes and

matches of endings that were not suffixes;

the former were more com mon wi th p = .059

(one-ta i led) . A comparable Sign Test for

SM words was very far f rom s igni f icance .

We conclude tha t suff ix-chunking probably

plays a role in generic recall .

Proximity to the Target and Quality of In-

formation

There were th ree varie t ies of posi t ive TOT

states: (1) C ases in which S recognized the

word read by E as the word he had been

seeking; (2) Cases in which S recalled the

in tended word before i t was read out ; (3 )

Cases in which S recalled the word he had

been seeking before E read the in tended

word and the reca l led word was not the same

as the word read . Since S in a TOT sta te of

e i ther type 2 or type 3 reached the ta rge t

before the in tended word was read and S in

a TOT sta te of type 1 d id no t , the TOTs of

the second and th i rd types may be consid-

e red n ea re r t h e t a rg e t t h an TO Ts o f t h e

f i rs t type . We have no basis for o rdering

types 2 and 3 re la t ive to one another . We


8/13

332 B R O W N N D M C N E I L L

p r e d i c t e d t h a t S s i n t h e t w o k i n d s o f T O T

s t a t e t h a t e n d e d i n r e c a l l ( t y p e s 2 a n d 3 )

w o u l d p r o d u c e m o r e a c c u r a t e i n f o r m a t i o n

a b o u t t h e t a r g e t t h a n S s i n t h e T O T s t a t e

t h a t e n d e d i n r e c o g n i t i o n ( t y p e 1 ) .

T h e p r e d i c t i o n w a s t e s t e d o n t h e e x p l i c i t

guesses o f in i t i a l l e t t e r s s ince these were the

m o s t c o m p l e t e a n d s e n s it iv e d a t a . T h e r e

w e r e 1 3 8 g u e s s e s f r o m Ss in a t y p e 1 s t a t e

a n d 5 8 o f t h e s e , o r 4 2 ~ , w e r e c o r r e c t . T h e r e

w e r e 3 6 g u e s s e s f r o m Ss i n a t y p e 2 s t a t e

a n d , o f t h e s e , 2 0 , o r 5 6 % , w e r e c o r r e c t .

T h e r e w e r e 5 9 g u e s s e s f r o m Ss i n a t y p e 3

s t a t e a n d o f t h e s e 3 9 , o r 6 6 % , w e r e c o r r e c t .

W e a l s o a n a l y z e d t h e r e s u l t s i n s u c h a w a y

a s t o c o u n t e a c h w o r d o n l y o n c e . T h e p e r -

c e n t a ge s c o r r e c t w e r e : f o r t y p e i , 5 0 % ;

t y p e 2 , 6 2 % ; t y p e 3 , 6 3 % . F i n a l l y , w e p e r -

f o r me d a n a n a l y s i s c o u n t i n g e a c h S j u s t o n c e

b u t a v e r a g i n g t o g e t h e r t y p e 2 a n d t y p e 3

r e s u lt s i n o r d e r to b r in g a m a x i m u m n u m b e r

o f S s i n t o t h e c o mp a r i s o n . T h e c o mb i n i n g

a c t i o n i s j u s t i f i e d s i n c e b o t h t y p e 2 a n d t y p e

3 w e r e s t a t e s e n d i n g i n r e c a l l . A S i g n T e s t

o f t h e d i f f e r e n c e s s h o w e d t h a t g u e s s e s w e r e

m o r e a c c u r a t e i n t h e s t a t e s t h a t e n d e d i n

r e c a l l t h a n i n t h e s t a t e s t h a t e n d e d i n r e c o g -

n i t i o n ; o n e - t a i l e d p < .0 1. Su p p l e m e n t a r y

a n a l y s e s w i t h SS a n d SM w o r d s c o n f i r me d

t h e s e r e s u l t s . W e c o n c l u d e t h a t w h e n S i s

n e a r e r h i s t a r g e t h i s g e n e r i c r e c a l l i s mo r e

a c c u r a t e t h a n w h e n h e is f a r t h e r f r o m t h e

t a r g e t .

Sp e c i a l i n t e r e s t a t t a c h e s t o t h e r e s u l t s f r o m

t y p e 2 T O T s . I n t h e m e t h o d o f o u r e x p e ri -

m e n t t h e r e i s n o t h i n g t o g u a r a n t e e t h a t w h e n

S s a i d h e r e c o g n i z e d a w o r d h e h a d r e a l l y

d o n e s o . Pe r h a p s w h e n E r e a d o u t a w o r d , S

c o u l d n o t h e l p t h i n k i n g t h a t t h a t w a s t h e

w o r d h e h a d i n m i n d . W e o u r s e l v es d o n o t

b e l i e v e a n y t h i n g o f t h e s o r t h a p p e n e d . T h e

s i n g l e f a c t t h a t mo s t S s c l a i me d f e w e r t h a n

f i ve p o s i t i v e T O T s i n a 2 - h r p e r i o d a r g u e s

aga ins t any such e f fec t . S t i l l i t i s reassu r ing

t o h a v e t h e 3 6 t y p e 2 c a s e s i n w h i c h S r e -

c a l l e d t h e i n t e n d e d w o r d be]ore i t w a s r e a d .

T h e f a c t t h a t 5 6 % o f t h e g u e s s e s o f i n i t i a l

l e t t e r s ma d e i n t y p e 2 s t a t e s w e r e c o r r e c t i s

h a r d - c o r e e v i d e n c e o f g e n e r i c r e c a l l . I t ma y

b e w o r t h a d d i n g t h a t 6 5 % o f t h e g u e s s e s

o f t h e n u mb e r o f s y l l a b l e s f o r t y p e 2 c a s e s

w e r e c o r r e c t .

udgments o] the Proximity of SS Words

T h e s e v e r a l c o m p a r i s o n s w e h a v e m a d e o f

S S a n d S M w o r d s d e m o n s t r a t e t h a t w h e n

r e c a l l i s i mmi n e n t S c a n d i s t i n g u i s h a mo n g

t h e w o r d s t h a t c o m e t o m i n d t h o s e t h a t r e -

s e m b l e t h e t a r g e t i n f o r m f r o m t h o s e t h a t

d o n o t r e s e m b l e t h e t a r g e t i n f o r m . T h e r e

i s a s e c o n d k i n d o f e v i d e n c e w h i c h s h o w s

t h a t S c a n t e l l w h e n h e i s g e t t i n g c l o s e ( o r

w a r m ) .

I n 1 5 i n s t a n c e s Ss r a t e d t w o o r mo r e SS

w o r d s f o r c o m p a r a t i v e s i m i l a r i t y t o t h e t a r -

g e t . O u r a n a l y s i s c o n t r a s t s t h o s e r a t e d m o s t

s i m i l a r ( 1 ) w i t h t h o se r a t e d n e x t m o s t

s i mi l a r ( 2 ) . S i n c e t h e r e w e r e v e r y f e w w o r d s

r a t e d ( 3 ) w e a t t e m p t e d n o a n a l y s i s o f t h e m .

S i mi l a r i t y p o i n t s w e r e g i v e n f o r a l l t h e f e a -

t u r e s o f a w o r d t h a t h a v e n o w b e e n d e m o n -

s t r a t e d t o p l a y a p a r t i n g e n e r i c r e c a l l - - w i t h

the s ing le excep t ion o f s t res s . S t res s had to

b e d i s r e g a r d e d b e c a u s e s o m e o f t h e w o r d s

w e r e i n v e n t e d a n d t h e i r s t r e s s p a t t e r n s w e r e

u n k n o w n .

T h e p r o b l e m w a s t o c o m p a r e p a i r s o f S S

w o r d s , r a t e d 1 a n d 2 , f o r o v e r a l l s i m i l a r i t y

t o t h e t a r g e t . W e d e t e r m i n e d w h e t h e r e a c h

m e m b e r m a t c h e d t h e t a r g e t i n n u m b e r o f

s y l l a b l e s . I f o n e d i d a n d t h e o t h e r d i d n o t ,

t h e n a s i n g l e s i m i l a r i t y p o i n t w a s a s s i g n e d

t h e w o r d t h a t m a t c h e d . F o r e a c h w o r d , w e

c o u n t e d , b e g i n n i n g w i t h t h e i n i t i a l l e t t e r ,

t h e n u m b e r o f c o n s e c u t iv e l e t te r s i n c o m m o n

w i t h t h e t a r g e t . T h e w o r d h a v i n g t h e l o n g e r

s e q u en c e t h a t m a t c h e d t h e t a r g e t e a r n e d o n e

s i m i l a r i t y p o i n t . A n e x a c t l y c o m p a r a b l e p r o -

c e d u r e w a s f o l l o w e d f o r s e q u e n c e s s t a r t i n g

f r o m t h e f i n a l l e t t e r . I n s u m, e a c h w o r d i n

a p a i r c o u l d r e c e i v e f r o m z e r o t o t h r e e s i m-

i l a r i t y p o i n t s .

W e m a d e S i g n T e s t s c o m p a r i n g t h e t o t a l

s c o r e s f o r w o r d s r a t e d mo s t l i k e t h e t a r g e t


9/13

TIP OF THE

TONGUE

PHENOMENON 333

(1 ) a nd words r a t e d ne x t mos t l i ke t he t a r -

ge t (2 ) . Th i s t e s t wa s on l y s l igh t l y i na pp ro -

p r i a t e s i nc e on l y t wo t a rge t words oc c u r re d

twice in the se t of 15 and only one S re -

pea ted in the se t . Ten of 12 d i f fe rences were

i n t he p re d i c t e d d i r e c t i on a nd t he one - t a i le d

p = .019. I t i s of some in te res t tha t s im-

i l a r i t y po i n t s a wa r de d on t he ba s i s o f le t t e rs

i n t he mi dd l e o f t he words d i d no t e ve n go

i n t he r i gh t d i r e c ti on . F i gu re 1 ha s a l r e a dy

i nd i c a t e d t ha t t he y a l so do no t f i gu re i n S s '

j udgme n t s o f t he c ompa ra t i ve s i mi l a r i t y t o

t he t a rge t o f pa i r s o f S S words . Our c onc l u -

s ion i s tha t S a t a g iven d is tance f rom the

t a rge t c a n a c c u ra t e l y j udge wh i c h o f t wo

words t ha t c ome t o mi nd i s more l i ke t he

t a rge t a nd t ha t he doe s so i n t e rms o f t he

fe a t u re s o f words t h a t a pp e a r i n ge ner i c

recall.

Conc lus ions

W h e n c ompl e t e r e ca l l o f a word ha s no t

oc c u r re d bu t i s f e lt t o be i mmi n e n t t he re i s

l ike ly to be accura te gener ic reca l l . Gener ic

reca l l of the abstrac t ]orm var ie ty i s evi -

d e n c e d b y S ' s k n o w l e d g e o f t h e n u m b e r o f

sy l l a b l e s i n t he t a rge t a nd o f t he l oc a t i on

of the pr imary s t ress . Gener ic reca l l of the

partial va r i e t y i s e v i de nc e d by S ' s knowl e dge

o f le t t er s i n t he t a rge t word . Th i s knowl e dge

shows a bowed se r ia l -pos i t ion e ffec t s ince

i t i s be t t e r fo r t he e nds o f a word t ha n fo r

t he mi dd l e a nd some wha t be t t e r fo r be g i n -

ning pos i t ions than for f ina l pos i t ions . The

accuracy of gener ic reca l l i s grea te r when S

is nea r the ta rge t (comple te reca l l i s im-

mi ne n t ) t ha n w he n S is fa r f rom t he t a rge t .

A pe rson exper ienc ing gener ic reca l l i s ab le

to judge the re la t ive s imi la r i ty to the ta rge t

o f words t ha t oc c u r t o h i m a nd t he se j udg -

me n t s a re ba se d on t he f e a t u re s o f words

t ha t f i gu re i n pa r t i a l a nd a bs t r a c t fo rm re -

call.

DISCUSSION

Th e fac t s of gener ic reca l l a re re levant to

theor ies of speech pe rcept ion , read ing, the

unde r s t a n d i ng o f s en t e nc e s , a nd t he o rga n i z a -

t i on o f me m ory . W e ha v e no t worke d ou t a l I

the impl ica t ions . In th i s sec t ion we f i rs t a t -

t e mp t a mode l o f t he TOT p roc e s s a nd t he n

t ry to account for the exis tence of gener ic

m e m o r y .

A Mode l o f the Process

Le t u s suppose (w i t h Ka t z a nd F odor ,

1963, a nd m a ny o t he r s ) t ha t ou r l ong - t e rm

me mory fo r words a nd de f i n i t i ons i s o rga n -

ized in to the func t iona l equiva lent of a d ic -

t ionary . In rea l d ic t ionar ies , those tha t a re

books , e n t r i e s a re o rde re d a l pha be t i c a l l y

a nd bound i n p l a c e . S uc h a n a r ra nge me n t i s

too s imple and too inf lexib le to se rve as a

mode l fo r a me n t a l d i c t i ona ry . W e wi l l sup -

pose t ha t words a re e n t e re d on ke yso r t c a rds

i n s t e a d o f pa ge s a nd t ha t t he c a rds a re

punc h e d fo r va r i ous f e a t u re s o f . he words

ente red . Wi th rea l ca rds , paper ones , i t i s

pos s i b l e t o r e t r i e ve f rom t he t o t a l de c k a ny

s u b s e t p u n c h e d f o r a c o m m o n f e a t u r e b y

pu t t i ng a me t a l rod t h rough t he p rope r ho l e .

W e wi l l suppose t ha t t he re i s i n t he mi nd

some speedie r equiva lent of th i s re t r ieva l

technique .

The model will be described in terms of a single

example. When the target word was sextant Ss

heard the definition: A navigational instrument

used in measuring angular dista nces, espe cially the

altitude of sun, moon, and stars at sea. This deft-

nifion precipitated a TOT state in 9 Ss of the total

56. The SM words included: astrolabe compass

dividers and protractor. The SS words included:

secant sextet and sexton.

The problem begin s with a definition rather than

a word and so S must enter his dictionary back-

wards, or in a way that would be backwards and

quite impossible for the dictionary that is a book.

It is not impossible with keysort cards, providing

we suppose that the cards are punched for some

set of semantic features. Perhaps the se are the

semantic markers that Katz and Fod or (1963)

postulate in their account of the comprehensioh of

sentences. We will imagine that it is somehow pos-

sible to extract from the definition a set of markers

and tha t thes e are, in the present case: navigation,

instrument, having to do with geometry. Metal

rods thrust into the holes for each of these features

mig ht fish up such a collection of entries as: astro-

labe compass dividers and protractor. This first


10/13

4 B R O W N A N D M C N E I L L

~ e t r ie v a l , w h i c h i s i n r e s p o n s e t o t h e d e f i n i t io n ,

m u s t b e s e m a n t i c a l l y b a s e d a n d i t w i ll n o t , t h e r e fo r e ,

a c c o u n t / o r t h e a p p e a r a n c e o f s u c h S S w o r d s a s

sextet

a n d

sexton.

T h e r e a r e f o u r m a j o r k i n d s o f o u t c o m e o f t h e

f i r s t r e t r i e v a l a n d t h e s e o u t c o m e s c o r r e s p o n d w i t h

t h e f o u r m a i n t h i n g s t h a t h a p p e n t o S s i n t h e T OT

e x p e r i m e n t . W e w i l l a s s u m e t h a t a d e f i n it i o n o f e a c h

w o r d r e t r ie v e d i s e n te r e d o n i t s c a rd a n d t h a t i t i s

p o s s i b l e t o c h e c k t h e i n p u t d e f i n i t i o n a g a i n s t t h o s e

o n t h e c a r d s . T h e f i r s t p o s s i b le o u t c o m e i s t h a t

sextant i s r e t r i e v e d a l o n g w i t h compass a n d astro-

labe a n d t h e o t h e r s a n d t h a t t h e d e f i n it i o n s a r e

s p e c i f i c e n o u g h s o t h a t t h e o n e e n t e r e d f o r

sextant

r e g i st e r s a s m a t c h i n g t h e i n p u t a n d a l l th e o t h e r s

a s n o t - m a t c h i n g . T h i s i s t h e c a s e o f c o r r e c t r e c a l l ;

S h a s f o u n d a w o r d t h a t m a t c h e s t h e d e f in i t io n a n d

i t i s t h e i n t e n d e d w o r d . T h e s e c o n d p o s s i b i l i t y i s

t h a t sextant i s n o t a m o n g t h e w o r d s r e t r i e v e d a n d ,

i n a d d i t i o n , t h e d e f i n i t i o n s e n t e r e d f o r t h o s e r e -

t r i e v e d a r e s o i m p r e c i s e t h a t o n e o f t h e m ( t h e

d e f i n i t i o n f o r

compass,

f o r e x a m p l e ) r e g i s t e r s a s

m a t c h i n g t h e i n p u t . I n t h i s ca s e S t h i n k s h e h a s

f o u n d t h e t a r g e t t h o u g h h e r e al ly h a s n o t . T h e

t h i r d p o s s i b i l i t y i s t h a t

sextant

i s n o t a m o n g t h e

w o r d s r e t r ie v e d , b u t t h e d e f i n i t i o n s e n t e r e d f o r t h o s e

r e t r ie v e d a r e s p ec if ic e n o u g h s o t h a t n o n e o f t h e m

w i l l r e ~ s t e r a m a t c h w i t h t h e i n p u t . I n t h i s c a se , S

d o e s n o t k n o w t h e w o r d a n d r e a l iz e s t h e f a c t. T h e

a b o v e t h r e e o u t c o m e s a r e th e c o m m o n o n e s a n d

n o n e o f t h e m r e p r e s e n t s a T O T s t a t e .

I n t h e T O T c a se t h e f ir s t r e t r ie v a l m u s t i n c l u d e a

c a r d w i t h t h e d e f i n i t i o n o f sextant e n t e r e d o n i t

b u t w i t h t h e w o r d i ts e lf i n c o m p l e t e l y e n t e r e d . T h e

c a r d m i g h t , f o r i n s ta n c e , h a v e t h e f o l l o w i n g i n -

f o r m a t i o n a b o u t t h e w o r d : t w o - s y l l a b l e s , i n i t ia l s ,

f in a l t. T h e e n t r y w o u l d b e a p u n c h c a r d e q u i v a l e n t

o f S _ _ _ _ T . P e r h a p s a n i n c o m p l et e e n t r y o f t h i s

s o r t i s J a m e s ' s s i n g u l a r l y d e f in i te g a p a n d t h e

b a s i s f o r g e n e r i c r e c a l l .

T h e S w i t h a c o r r e c t d e f i n i t i o n , m a t c h i n g t h e i n -

p u t , a n d a n i n c o m p l e t e w o r d e n t r y w i l l k n o w t h a t

h e k n o w s t h e w o r d , w i ll f e el t h a t h e a l m o s t h a s i t ,

t h a t i t is o n t h e t i p o f h i s t o n g u e . I f h e i s a s k e d

t o g u e s s t h e n u m b e r o f s y l la b l e s a n d t h e i n i t i a l

l e t t e r h e s h o u l d , i n t h e c a s e w e h a v e i m a g i n e d , b e

a b l e t o d o s o . H e s h o u l d a l so b e a b l e t o p r o d u c e S S

w o r d s . T h e f e a t u r e s t h a t a p p e a r i n t h e i n c o m p l e t e

e n t r y ( t w o - s y l l a b l e s , i n i ti a l s, a n d f i n a l t ) c a n b e

u s e d a s t h e b a s i s fo r a s e c o n d r e t r ie v a l . T h e s u b s e t

o f c a r d s d e f i n e d b y t h e i n t e r s e c t i o n o f a l l t h r e e

f e a t u r e s w o u l d i n c l u d e c a r d s f o r

secant

a n d

sextet.

I f o n e f e a t u r e w e r e n o t u s e d t h e n

sexton

w o u l d b e

a d d e d t o t h e s e t .

W h i c h o f t h e fa c t s a b o u t t h e T O T s t a t e c a n n o w

b e a c c o u n t e d f o r ? W e k n o w t h a t S s w e r e a b le , w h e n

t h e y h a d n o t r e c a l l e d a t a r g e t , t o d i s t i n g u i s h b e -

t w e e n w o r d s r e s e m b l i n g t h e t a r g e t in s o u n d ( S S

w o r d s ) a n d w o r d s r e s e m b l i n g t h e t a r g e t i n m e a n i n g

o n l y ( S M w o r d s ) . T h e b a s i s f o r t h i s d i s t i n c t i o n i n

t h e m o d e l w o u l d s e e m t o b e t h e d i s t i n c t i o n b e t w e e n

t h e f ir s t a n d s e c o n d r e t r ie v a l s. M e m b e r s h i p i n t h e

f ir s t s u b s e t r e t ri e v e d d e f i n e s S M w o r d s a n d m e m -

b e r s h i p i n t h e s e c o n d s u b s e t d e f i n e s S S w o r d s .

W e k n o w t h a t w h e n S h a d p r o d u c e d s e v e r a l S S

w o r d s b u t h a d n o t r e c a l l e d t h e t a r g e t h e c o u l d

s o m e t i m e s a c c u r a t e ly r a n k - o r d e r t h e S S w o r d s f o r

s i m i l a r i t y t o t h e t a r g e t . T h e m o d e l o f f e r s a n a c c o u n t

o f t h is r a n k i n g p e r f o r m a n c e . I f t h e i n c o m p l e t e e n t r y

f o r

sextant

i n c l u d e s t h r e e f e a t u r e s o f t h e w o r d t h e n

S S w o r d s h a v i n g o n l y o n e o r t w o o f th e s e fe a t u r e s

(e.g. ,

sexton)

s h o u l d b e j u d g e d l e ss s i m i l a r t o t h e

t a r g e t t h a n S S w o r d s h a v i n g a ll th r e e o f t h e m

(e.g. , secant).

W h e n a n S S w o r d h a s a l l o f t h e f e a t u r e s o f t h e

i n c o m p l e t e e n t r y ( a s do

secant

a n d

sextet

i n o u r

e x a m p l e ) w h a t p r e v e n t s i ts b e i n g m i s t a k e n f o r t h e

t a r g e t ? W h y d i d n o t t h e S w h o p r o d u c e d

sextet

t h i n k t h a t t h e w o r d w a s r i g h t ? B e c a u s e o f t h e

d e f in i t io n s . T h e f o r m s m e e t a l l th e r e q u i r e m e n t s o f

t h e i n c o m p l e t e e n t r y b u t t h e d e f i n i t i o n s d o n o t

m a t c h .

T h e T O T s t a t e o f t e n e n d e d i n r e c o g n i t i o n ; i . e . ,

S f a il e d to r e c al l t h e w o r d b u t w h e n E r e a d o u t

sextant S r e c o g n i z ed i t a s t h e w o r d h e h a d b e e n

s e e k in g . T h e m o d e l a c c o u n t s f o r t h i s o u t c o m e a s

f o l l o w s . S u p p o s e t h a t t h e r e i s o n l y t h e i n c o m p l e t e

e n t r y S _ _ _ _ . T i n m e m o r y , p l u s t h e d e f in i ti o n . T h e

E n o w s a y s ( i n e f fe c t ) t h a t t h e r e e x i s ts a w o r d

sextant w h i c h h a s t h e d e f i n i ti o n i n q u e s t i o n . T h e

w o r d

sextant

t h e n s a t is f i es a l l t h e d a t a p o i n t s a v a i l -

a b l e t o S ; i t h a s t h e f i g h t n u m b e r o f s y l l a b l e s , t h e

r i g h t i n i t i a l l e t t e r , t h e r i g h t f i n a l l e t t e r , a n d i t i s

s a i d t o h a v e t h e r i g h t d e f i n i t i o n . T h e r e s u l t is r e c o g -

n i t i o n .

T h e p r o p o s e d a c c o u n t h a s s o m e t e s t a b l e i m p l i c a -

t i o n s . S u p p o s e t h a t F . w e r e t o r e a d o u t , w h e n r e -

c a l l f a i l e d , n o t t h e c o r r e c t w o r d

sextant

b u t a n

i n v e n t e d w o r d l i k e

sekrant

o r

saktint

w h i c h s a t i s -

f ie s t h e i n c o m p l e t e e n t r y a s w e l l a s d o e s sextant

i ts e lf . I f S h a d n o t h i n g b u t t h e i n c o m p l e t e e n t r y a n d

E s

t e s t i m o n y t o g u i d e h i m t h e n h e s h o u l d r e c o g -

n i z e t h e i n v e n t e d w o r d s j u s t a s h e r ec o g n i z es

sextant.

T h e a c c o u n t w e h a v e g i v e n d o e s n o t a c c o r d w i t h

i n t u i t i o n . O u r i n t u i t i v e n o t i o n o f r e c o g n i t i o n i s

t h a t t h e f e a t u r e s w h i c h c o u l d n o t b e c a l l ed w e r e

a c t u a l l y i n s t o r a g e b u t l e s s a c c e s s ib l e t h a n t h e f e a -

t u r e s t h a t w e r e r e c a l l e d . T o s t a y w i t h o u r e x a m p l e ,

i n t u i t i o n s u g g e s t s t h a t t h e f e a t u r e s o f sextant t h a t

c o u l d n o t b e r e c a l l e d , t h e l e t t e r s b e t w e e n t h e f i r s t

a n d t h e l a s t , w e r e e n t e r e d o n t h e c a r d b u t w e r e


11/13

~ T I P O F T H E T O N G UE ~ P H E N O M E N O N 3 3 5

less leg ib le than the reca l led fea tu res . W e mi gh t

im a g in e th e m p r in t e d in s m a l l l e t t e r s a n d f a in t ly .

Wh e n , h o w e v e r , t h e g r e a d s o u t t h e w o rd

sextant,

then S can make ou t the le s s leg ib le pa r ts o f h is

e n t ry a n d , s in c e th e to t a l e n t ry m a tc h e s E ' s w o rd , S

recognizes i t . Th is so r t o f recogni t ion shou ld be

t ig h te r t h a n th e o n e d e s c r ib ed p re v io u s ly . Sekrant

a n d saktint w o u ld h e r e j e c t e d .

We d id n o t t ry th e e f f ec t o f i n v e n te d w o rd s a n d

w e d o n o t k n o w h o w t h e y w o u l d h a v e b e e n r e -

c e iv e d h u t a m o n g th e o u tc o m e s o f t h e a c tu a l e x -

p e r im e n t th e re i s o n e th a t s t ro n g ly f a v o r s th e

fa in t - e n t ry th e o ry . S u b je c t s i n a T O T s t a t e , a f t e r

a l l , s o m e t im e s r e c a l l e d th e t a rg e t w o rd w i th o u t a n y

p ro m p t in g . T h e in c o m p le te e n t ry th e o ry d o e s n o t

a d m i t o f s u c h a p o s sib i li t y . I f w e s u p p os e th a t t h e

e n t ry i s n o t S _ _ _ _ _ T b u t s o m e th in g m o re l i k e

Sex tanT (w i th th e i t a l i c i ze d lo w e r -c a se l e t t e r s r e p -

re s e n t in g th e f a in t - e n t ry s e c t io n ) w e m u s t s t i l l

e x p la in h o w i t h a p p e n s th a t t h e f a in t ly e n te re d ,

and a t f i rs t inaccess ib le , midd le le t te rs a re made

accessible in the case of recall.

P e rh a p s i t w o rk s s o m e th in g l ik e th i s . T h e f e a -

tu res tha t a re f i rs t reca l led opera te a s we have

sugges ted , to re t r ieve a se t o f SS wo. rds . Whenever

a n S S w o rd ( s u c h a s secant inc ludes midd le le t te rs

th a t a re m a tc h e d in th e f a in t ly e n te re d s e c t io n o f

th e t a rg e t t h e n th o s e f a in t ly e n te re d l e t t e r s b e c o m e

access ib le . The match b r ings ou t the miss ing pa r ts

th e w a y h e a t b r in g s o u t a n y th in g w r i t t e n in l e m o n

ju ic e . In o th e r w o rd s , w h e n secant i s r e t r i e v e d th e

t a rg e t e n t ry g ro w s f ro m

Sex tanT

t o S E x r A N T .

T h e r e t r i e v a l o f sextet b r in g s o u t t h e r e m a in in g

le t te rs and S reca l ls the comple te word--sextant.

I t i s now poss ib le to exp la in the one as ye t un-

e x p la in e d o u tc o m e o f th e T O T e x p e r im e n t . S u b je c t s

w h o s e s t a t e e n d e d in r e c a l l h a d , b e fo re th e y fo u n d

th e t a rg e t , m o re c o r re c t i n fo rm a t io n a b o u t i t t h a n

d id S s w h o s e s t a t e e n d e d in r e c o g n i t io n . Mo re c o r -

r e c t i n fo rm a t io n m e a n s f e w e r f e a tu re s to b e b ro u g h t

o u t b y d u p l i c a t io n in S S w o rd s a n d s o s h o u ld m e a n

a g rea te r l ike l ihood tha t a l l e s sen t ia l fea tu res wil l

b e b ro u g h t o u t i n a s h o r t p e r io d o f t im e .

A l l o f t h e a b o v e a s s u m e s th a t e a c h w o rd i s e n -

te red in memory jus t once , on a s ing le ca rd . There

is ano the r poss ib i l i ty . Suppose tha t the re a re en tr ie s

fo r sextant o n s e v e ra l d i f f e re n t c a rd s . T h e y m ig h t

a l l b e in c o m p le te , b u t a t d i f f e re n t p o in t s , o r , s o m e

m i g h t b e i n c o m p l e t e a n d o n e o r m o r e o f t h e m c o m -

p le t e . T h e s e v e ra l c a rd s w o u ld b e p u n c h e d fo r

d i f f e re n t s e m a n t i c m a rk e r s a n d p e rh a p s fo r d i f f e re n t

a s s o c ia t io n s s o th a t t h e e n t ry r e c o v e re d w o u ld

v a ry w i th th e ru l e o f r e t r i e v a l . Wi th th i s c o n c e p -

t io n w e d o n o t r e q u i re th e n o t io n o f f a in t e n t ry .

T h e d i f f e re n c e b e tw e e n f e a tu re s c o m m o n ly r e c a l l e d ,

such as the f i rs t and la s t le t te rs , and fea tu res tha t

a re r e c a l l e d w i th d i f f i c u l ty o r p e rh a p s o n ly r e c o g -

n iz e d , c a n b e r e n d e re d in a n o th e r w a y . T h e m o re

access ib le fea tu res a re en te red on more ca rds o r

e l s e th e c a rd s o n w h ic h th e y a p p e a r a re p u n c h e d

fo r m o re m a rk e r s ; i n e f f e c t , t h e y a re w i re d in to

a more ex tended assoc ia t ive ne t .

The Reason ]or Generic Recall

I n a d u l t m i n d s w o r d s a r e s t o r e d i n b o t h

v i s u a l a n d a u d i t o r y t e r m s a n d b e t w e e n t h e

t w o t h e r e a r e c o m p l i c a t e d r u l e s of t r a n s la -

t i o n . G e n e r i c r e c a l l i n v o l v e s l e t t e r s ( o r p h o -

n e m e s ) , a f fi x es , s y l l a b l e s , a n d s t r e s s l o c a t i o n .

I n t h i s s e c t io n w e w i l l d i sc u s s o n l y l e t t e r s

( l e g ib l e f o r m s ) a n d w i l l a t t e m p t t o ex p l a i n

a si n g l e e f f e c t - - t h e s e r i a l p o s i t i o n e f f e c t i n

t h e r e c a l l o f l e t t e r s. I t i s n o t c l e a r h o w f a r

t h e e x p l a n a t i o n c a n b e e x t e n d e d .

I n b r i e f o v e r v i e w t h i s is t h e a r g u m e n t .

T h e d e s i g n o f th e E n g l i s h l a n g u a g e i s s u c h

t h a t o n e w o r d i s u s u a l l y d i s t i n g u i s h e d f r o m

a l l o t h e r s i n a m o r e - t h a n - m i n i m a l w a y , i .e .,

b y m o r e t h a n a s in g l e l e t t e r i n a s i n g le p o s i -

t i o n . I t i s c o n s e q u e n t l y possible t o r e c o g n i z e

w o r d s w h e n o n e h as n o t s t o r e d t h e c o m p l e t e

l e t t e r se q u e n c e . T h e e v i d e n c e is t h a t w e d o

n o t s t o r e t h e c o m p l e t e s e q u e n c e i f w e d o n o t

h a v e t o . W e b e g i n b y a t t e n d i n g c h i e f ly to

i n i t i a l a n d f i n a l l e t t e r s a n d s t o r i n g t h e s e .

T h e o r d e r o f a t t e n t i o n a n d o f s t o r a g e f a v o r s

t h e e n d s o f w o r d s b e c a u s e t h e e n d s c a r r y

m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n t h a n t h e m i d d l es . A n i n -

c o m p l e t e e n t r y w i l l s e r v e f o r r e c o g n i t i o n , b u t

i f w o r d s a r e t o b e p r o d u c e d ( o r r e c a l le d )

t h e y m u s t b e s t o r e d i n f u l l . F o r m o s t w o r d s ,

t h e n , i t i s e v e n t u a l l y n e c e s s a r y t o a t t e n d t o

t h e m i d d l e l e t t e r s . S i n c e e n d l e t t e r s h a v e

b e e n a t t e n d e d t o f r o m t h e f i rs t t h e y s h o u l d

a l w a y s b e m o r e c l e a r l y e n t e r e d o r m o r e

e l a b o r a t e l y c o n n e c t e d t h a n m i d d l e l e t te r s .

W h e n r e c al l i s r e q u i r e d , o f w o r d s t h a t a r e

n o t v e r y f a m i l i a r t o S , a s i t w a s i n o u r e x -

p e r i m e n t , t h e e n d l e t t e rs s h o u l d o f t e n b e

a c c e s s i b l e w h e n t h e m i d d l e a r e n o t .

I n b u i l d i n g p r o n o u n c e a b l e s e q u e n c e s t h e

E n g l i s h l a n g u a g e , l i k e al l o t h e r l a n g u a g e s ,

u t i l i z e s o n l y a s m a l l f r a c t i o n o f i t s c o m -

b i n a t o r i a l p o s s i b il i t ie s ( H o c k e t t , 1 9 5 8 ) . I f


12/13

33 6 BROWN AND MC NEILL

a l a n g u a g e u s e d a l l p o s s i b le s e q u e n c e s o f

p h o n e m e s ( o r l e t t e r s ) i t s w o r d s c o u l d b e

s h o r t e r, b u t t h e y w o u l d b e m u c h m o r e v u l -

n e r a b l e t o m i s c o n s t r u c t i o n . A c h a n g e o f a n y

s i n g l e l e t t e r w o u l d r e s u l t i n r e c e p t i o n o f a

d i f f e r e n t w o r d . A s m a t t e r s a r e a c t u a l l y a r -

r a n g e d , m o s t c h a n g e s r e s u l t i n n o w o r d a t

a l l ; f o r e x a m p l e :

textant sixtant sektant.

O u r w o r d s a r e h i g h l y r e d u n d a n t a n d f a i rl y

i n d e s t r u c t i b l e .

U n d e r w o o d ( 1 9 6 3 ) h a s m a d e a di s t in c t i on

f o r t h e l e a r n i n g o f n o n s e n s e s y l l a b l e s b e -

t w e e n t h e n o m i n a l s t i m u l u s w h i c h i s t h e

s y l la b l e p r e s e n t e d a n d t h e f u n c t i o n a l s t im -

u l u s w h i c h i s t h e s e t o f c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s o f t h e

s y l l a b l e a c t u a l l y u s e d t o c u e t h e r e s p o n s e .

U n d e r w o o d r e v i ew s e v i d e n c e s h o w i n g t h a t

c o l le g e s t u d e n t s l e a r n i n g p a i r e d - a s s o c i a t e s d o

n o t l e a r n a n y m o r e o f a s t im u l u s t r i g r a m

t h a n t h e y h a v e t o . If , f o r i n s t a n c e , e a c h o f

a s e t o f s t i m u l u s t r i g r a m s h a s a d i f f e re n t

i n i t i a l l e t t e r , t h e n S s a r e n o t l i k e l y t o l e a r n

l e t t e r s o t h e r t h a n t h e f i r s t , s i n c e t h e y d o

n o t n e e d t h e m .

F e i g e n b a u m ( 1 9 6 3 ) h a s w r i t t e n a c o m -

p u t e r p r o g r a m ( E P A M ) w h i c h s i m u l a t es

t h e s e l e c t i v e - a t t e n t i o n a s p e c t o f v e r b a l l e a r n -

i n g a s w e l l a s m a n y o t h e r a s p e c t s . . . .

E P A M h a s a

noticing order ]or letters of

syllables

w h i c h p r e s c r ib e s a t a n y m o m e n t a

l e t t e r - s c a n n i n g s e q u e n c e f o r t h e m a t c h i n g

p r o c e ss . B e c a u s e i t is o b s e r v e d t h a t s u b j e c t s

g e n e r a l l y c o n s i d e r e n d l e t t e r s b e f o r e m i d d l e

l e t t e r s , t h e n o t i c i n g o r d e r i s i n i t i a l i z e d a s

f o l l o w s : f i r s t l e t t e r , t h i r d l e t t e r , s e c o n d l e t -

t e r ( p . 3 0 4 ) . W e b e l i e v e t h a t t h e di f f e re n -

t i a l r e c a l l o f l e t t e r s i n v a r i o u s p o s i t i o n s , r e -

v e a l e d i n F i g . 1 o f t h i s p a p e r , i s t o b e

e x p l a i n e d b y t h e o p e r a t i o n i n t h e p e r c e p t i o n

o f r e a l w o r d s o f a r u l e v e r y m u c h l i k e F e i g e n -

b a u m ' s .

Feigenbaum's EPAM is so wri t ten as to make

it possible for the noticing rule to be changed by

experience. If the middle position Were consistently

the posit ion that differentiated syllables, the com-

puter would learn to look there first . We suggest

that the human tendency to look first at the begin-

ning of a word, then at the end and finally the

middle has grow n in response to the distribu-

t ion of information in words. Miller and Friedman

(1957) asked English speakers to guess letters for

various open posit ions in segments of English text

that were 5, 7, or 11 characters lon g: The percent-

ages of correct first guesses show a very clear serial

position effect for segments of all three lengths.

Success was lowest in the early positions, next

lowest in the final posit ions, and a t a maxim um in

the middle posit ions. Therefore, information was

greatest at the start of a word, next greatest at the

end, and least in the middle. Attention needs to be

turned where information is, to the parts of the

word that cannot be guessed. The Miller and Fried-

man segments did not necessari ly break at word

boundaries but their discovery that the middle

positions of continuous text are more easily guessed

than the ends applies to words.

Is there any evidence that speakers of English do

attend first to the ends of English words? There is

no evidence that the eye fixations of adult readers

consistently favor part icular parts of words (Wood-

worth and Schlosberg, 1954). However, i t is not

eye fixation that we have in mind. A considerable

stretch of text can be taken in from a single fixa-

t ion point . We are suggesting that there is selection

within this stretch, selection accomplished centrally;

perhaps by a mechanism like Broadbent 's (1958)

biased fi l ter.

Bruner and O'Do wd (1958) studied word per-

ception with tachistoscopic exposures too brief to

permit more than one fixation. In each word pre-

sented there was a single reversal of two let ters and

the S knew this. His task was to identify the

actual

English word responding as quickly as pos-

sible. When the

actual

word was AVIATION, Ss

were presented with one of the following: VAIA-

TION, AVITAION, AVIATINO. Ident i f icat ion of

the actual word as AVIAT ION was best when S

saw AVITAION, next best when he saw AVIA-

TINO, and most d i f f icul t when he saw VAIATION.

In general , a reversal of the two init ial let ters made

identification most difficult, reversal of the last two

letters made it somewhat less difficult, reversal in

the middle made least difficulty. This is what should

happen if words are first scanned init ial ly, then

finally, then medially. But the scanning cannot be

a mat ter of eye movements; i t must be more cent ral .

Selective at tention to the ends of wo rds should

lead to the entry of these parts into the mental

dictionary, in advance of the middle parts. However,

we ordinari ly need to know more than the ends

of words. Underwood has pointed out (1963), in

connection with paired-associate learning, that

while part ial knowledge may be enough for a st im-

ulus syllable which need only be recognized i t wil l


13/13

~ T I P O F T H E T O N G U E " P H E N O M E N O N 3 3 7

not su ff ice fo r a response i tem which mus t be

produced . T he case is s imi a r fo r na t u ra l language .

In o rd e r to s p e a k o n e m u s t k n o w a l l o f a w o rd .

H o w e v e r , t h e w o rd s o f t h e p re s e n t s tu d y w e re lo w -

f re q u e n c y w o rd s , w o rd s l i k e ly to b e in th e p a s s iv e

o r r e c o g n i tio n v o c a b u la r i e s o f t h e c o l l e g e - s tu d e n t S s

b u t n o t i n th e i r a c t iv e v o c a b u la r i e s ; s t im u lu s i t e m s ,

in e ffec t , ra the r than response i tems . I f knowledge

o f th e p a r t s o f n e w w o rd s b e g in s a t t h e e n d s a n d

m o v e s t o w a r d t h e m i d d l e w e m i g h t e x p e c t a w o r d

like numismatics, which was on our l is t , to be s t i l l

r e g i s t e r e d a s N U M _ _ _ _ I C S . R e d u c e d e n t r i e s o f

th i s s o r t w o u ld in m a n y c o n te x t s s e rv e to r e t r i e v e

the de f in i t ion .

T h e a rg u m e n t i s r e in fo rc e d b y a w e l l -k n o w n

effect in spelling. Jen sen (1962) has anal yze d

thousands o f spe l l ing e rro rs fo r words o f 7 , 9 ,

o r 1 1 l e t t e r s m a d e b y c h i ld re n in th e e ig h th a n d

te n th g ra d e s a n d b y ju n io r c o l le g e f r e s h m e n . A

s tr ik ing se r ia l po s i t ion e ffec t appears in a l l h is se ts

o f d a t a s u c h th a t e r ro r s a re m o s t c o m m o n in th e

m id d le o f t h e w o rd , n e x t m o s t c o m m o n a t t h e e n d ,

a n d l e a s t c o m m o n a t t h e s t a r t . T h e s e r e s u l t s a re a s

th e y s h o u ld b e i f t h e o rd e r o f a t t e n t io n a n d e n t ry

o f in fo rm a t io n i s f i r s t , l a s t , a n d th e n , m id d le . J e n -

s e n ' s r e s u l t s s h o w u s w h a t h a p p e n s w h e n c h i ld re n

a re fo rc e d to p ro d u c e w o rd s th a t a re s t i l l o n th e

recogni t io n leve l . His resu l ts remind us o f those

b lu e b o o k s in w h ic h s tu d e n t s w h o a re u n c e r t a in o f

th e s p e l l in g o f a w o rd w r i t e t h e f i r s t a n d l a s t l e t -

t e r s w i th g re a t c l a r i ty a n d f i ll i n th e m id d le w i th

indec ipherab le squ igg les . Tha t is wha t shou ld hap-

p e n w h e n a w o rd th a t c a n b e o n ly p a r t i a l ly r e -

c a l l e d m u s t b e p ro d u c e d in i t s e n t i r e ty . E n d l e t t e r s

a n d a s t r e t c h o f s q u ig g le s m a y , h o w e v e r , b e q u i t e

a d e q u a te fo r r e c o g n i t io n p u rp o s e s . In th e T O T

e x p e r im e n t w e h a v e p e rh a p s p a c e d a d u l t S s in a

s i tu a t io n c o m p a ra b le to th a t c re a t e d fo r c h i ld re n b y

Jensen ' s spe l l ing te s ts .

T h e r e a r e t w o p o i n t s t o c l a r i f y a n d t h e

a r g u m e n t i s f i n is h e d . T h e S s in o u r e x p e r i -

m e n t w e r e c o l l eg e s t u d e n t s , a n d s o i n o r d e r

t o o b t a i n w o r d s o n t h e m a r g i n o f k n o w l e d g e

w e h a d t o us e w o r d s t h a t a r e v e r y i n f r e q u e n t

i n E n g l i s h a s a w h o l e . I t i s n o t o u r t h o u g h t ,

h o w e v e r , t h a t t h e T O T p h e n o m e n o n o c c u rs

o n l y w i t h r a r e w o r d s . T h e a b s o l u t e l o c a t i o n

o f t h e m a r g i n o f w o r d k n o w l e d g e i s a f u n c -

t i o n o f S ' s ag e a n d e d u c a t i o n , a n d s o w i t h

o t h e r S s w e w o u l d e x p e c t t o o b t a i n T O T

s t a t es f o r w o r d s m o r e f r e q u e n t i n E n g l i s h .

F i n a l l y t h e n e e d t o p r o d u c e ( o r r e c al l ) a

w o r d i s n o t t h e o n l y f a c t o r t h a t i s ] i k e l y t o

e n c o u r a g e r e g i s t r a t i o n o f i ts m i d d l e l e t te r s .

T h e a m o u n t o f d e t a i l n e e d e d t o s p e c if y a

w o r d u n i q u e l y m u s t i n c r e a s e w i t h t h e t o t a l

n u m b e r o f w o r d s k n o w n , t h e n u m b e r f r o m

w h i c h a n y o n e is to b e d i s t i n g u i s h e d . C o n s e -

q u e n t l y t h e g r o w t h o f v o c a b u l a r y , a s w e ll a s

t h e n e e d t o r e c a l l , s h o u l d h a v e s o m e p o w e r

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