Abstract
During tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) experiences, phonologically related words have both facilitated and impeded word retrieval. In the present experiment, we examined whether phonologically related words’ syntactic class (part of speech) is responsible for these differential effects. Sixty college students saw general knowledge questions whose answers were designated target words and responded “know,” “don’t know,” or “TOT.” Following “TOT” and “don’t know” responses, the participants saw five words, one of which was a prime. The primes contained the target’s first syllable and either shared or did not share the target’s part of speech. Following presentation of the primes, retrieval of the target was attempted again. Different-part-of-speech primes facilitated resolution of TOT states, whereas same-part-of-speech primes had no effect, relative to phonologically unrelated words. These results support node structure theory’s most-primed-wins principle and the transmission deficit model account of TOT states and detail the importance of syntactic class in the selection of words that are candidates for speech production.
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This article is based on an undergraduate senior thesis written by E.L.R. Portions of this research were reported at the 16th annual convention of the American Psychological Society in May 2004 and at the 45th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society in November 2004. The research was partially supported by the University of Florida University Scholars Program, an undergraduate research award granted to E.L.R.
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Abrams, L., Rodriguez, E.L. Syntactic class influences phonological priming of tip-of-the-tongue resolution. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 12, 1018–1023 (2005). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206437
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206437