I have it on the tip of my tongue!

How frustrating it is! We know that we know it, that it is there, somewhere in our memory, but… why can’t we access the name of that person, or that place that we know well, but that capriciously escapes us when we want to evoke it? Is he phenomenon of having it on the tip of your tongue.

The name of this common and curious event perfectly expresses that feeling of being so close to evoking a certain word, that it seems to have fun at our expense by escaping our reach. Do you want to know how and why it happens?

Having it on the tip of your tongue: A peculiar phenomenon

have a word on the tip of your tongueDuring that state of intense feeling of knowing the word, which is not accessed, we remember certain information about the searched term.

On many occasions, even details such as the number of syllables, the initial and final letter, and the location of the main stress are remembered. Besides, We try to look for synonyms or alternative words as a strategy to find the missing wordapparently.

All of this shows that the process of word recovery is not “all or nothing.” On the contrary, The phonological and semantic representations of words are independent and mutually supportive.

Another peculiarity of the PDL phenomenon is that occurs to a greater extent with proper nouns. To a lesser extent it occurs with common nouns and, very rarely, with verbs and adjectives. The researchers maintain that This phenomenon is common and frequent, its incidence increasing with age.
However, its incidence may increase regardless of age, due to environmental factors. For example, during school or university exam periods.

It is not in the language, but in the neural networks

The brain, that powerful center where all information is processed, elaborated, transformed and stored, is made up of millions of neurons. However, which determines how efficiently the neural connections work.

So, The stronger these connections are, the better our ability to remember and retrieve information. Also, to make inferences and draw conclusions based on stored data and environmental stimuli.

These networks are strengthened through the use we make of them. This way, more frequently used words are more strongly connected to a greater number of networks. Since, for example, we have a greater amount of physical and sensory information about it.

The practical conclusion is that The more we use the words, the greater the probability of recovering them and to avoid the phenomenon of having them on the tip of your tongue.

The key to avoiding that frustrating feeling of having a word on the tip of your tongue is to strengthen your neural networks. As? keeping the mind active, continuously learning, interacting socially and challenging ourselves intellectually.

Therefore, if we do it this way, the networks will function analogously to an elastic mesh in which the words will project outwards from our lips fluidly. But if we don’t exercise our brain, these networks will be more like fishing nets, where words will be trapped on the tip of the tongue…

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