Are tip-of-the-tongue states universal? Evidence from the speakers of an unwritten language

Abstract

Schwartz (1999, 2002) has claimed that tip-of-the-tongue states (TOTs) are universal. The studies reported in this paper examine this claim for illiterates, unschooled literates, and schooled readers, all speakers of an unwritten Guatemalan language. The first study showed that, although there was little evidence of a dedicated verbal expression for this state of consciousness in the Mayan language of Q'eqchi’, a majority of participants in all three groups recognised a description of the phenomenology associated with tip-of-the-tongue states. In two further studies it was shown that TOTs could be induced in all groups of participants, and that they were reliably resolved by the presentation of the words’ initials. Thus, even in the absence of an expression for “tip-of-the-tongue state”, the basic phenomenology and cueing properties of TOTs were similar to those reported in previous studies. However, only university-level participants reported partial knowledge of word targets they had failed to recall. The results are discussed from psycholinguistic and metacognitive perspectives, drawing a possible link between TOTs and epistemic curiosity.