{"id":2159,"date":"2015-11-24T09:37:58","date_gmt":"2015-11-24T14:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/?p=2159"},"modified":"2017-06-27T14:22:02","modified_gmt":"2017-06-27T18:22:02","slug":"gesturing-and-tip-of-the-tongue-how-flailing-your-arms-can-cure-a-tot-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/2015\/11\/24\/gesturing-and-tip-of-the-tongue-how-flailing-your-arms-can-cure-a-tot-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Gesturing and Tip of the Tongue: How flailing your arms can cure a TOT state"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you ever think of a word or phrase and you know <\/em>you know it, you just can\u2019t seem to find it? You\u2019re frustrated and want so badly to be able to say the word, one might even say it\u2019s at the tip of your tongue. This feeling is called a tip-of-the-tongue state, or the TOT phenomena. It\u2019s likely that on top on this frustrating experience, you are flailing your hands around trying to gesture the word at the tip of your tongue. Although you may look strange doing so, gesturing may actually be the thing that helps you retrieve that word you so desperately want to access.<\/p>\n

\"tipGestures, which are body or limb movements, can be characterized as an element of a word\u2019s meaning in some
\none\u2019s mental representation, or bank of knowledge. Humans often pair certain gestures with different words based on a possible function or shape of a word that is an object<\/p>\n

For example, for the word \u2018brush\u2019, you may run your hands through you hair. This\u00a0hand gesture is associated with the word \u2018brush\u2019 because it is paired with the function\u00a0of a brush, located in your mental representation. Because of this association, it is possible to find yourself gesturing the functions of a word even though you cannot actually access what that word is. Luckily for those frustrated by TOT states, gesturing can help retrieve the word that is difficult to access.<\/p>\n

Two different studies were done to connect gesturing and word retrieval. One study by Frick-Horbury and Guttentag found that participants recalled more words when they could gesture but that there no significant increase in TOT states resolved. However, another study by Beattie and Coughlan found that there was no increase in recalled words when participants could gesture. Yet, when participants could gesture, they resolved more TOT states than those who couldn\u2019t gesture. With different findings from Frick-Horbury and Guttentag (1998) and Beattie and Coughlan (1999) it was apparent that more research had to be done to understand the connection between gestures and word retrieval. Therefore, Timothy Pring, Foteini Theocharopoulou, Naomi Cocks and Lucy T. Dipper decided to take this information and test how age affected the type and frequency of gestures made during TOT states.<\/p>\n

The study, named TOT Phenomena: Gesture Production in Younger and Older Adults, tested two groups of participants. One group contained participants ages 18-30 while the other one consisted of participants ages 60-75. Each group was instructed to complete two tasks, a naming task and a narrative task. First, participants were presented a picture of an object three times. The picture was accompanied by a written and audio pseudo word, or made up word as well as a made up function. Next up were the two tasks.<\/p>\n

\"pseudo-word-identifcation\"In the naming task, participants were asked to name the object and the function when they saw the object again, void of the pseudo word. Participants were then given small cues to help induce a TOT state when they could not retrieve the word. In the narrative task, participants were asked to describe what they saw in four different videos where the object was being used. In both experiments, participants were being video tapped so that Pring et al. could observe their gestures. Experimenters observed two types of gestures while the tasks were being completed. The first, iconic gestures, depict semantic knowledge or meaning and function, such as the hairbrush gesture. The second, non-iconic gestures, do not depict any concrete characteristics of the word.<\/p>\n

The results of this experiment showed that both groups frequently gestured when entering the TOT state. More specifically, participants had more iconic gestures than noniconic gestures. The more TOT states a person had, the more they gestured to help them locate the word. This supported the theory that gestures do have a connection to our mental representation of a word. To help access the pseudo words they studied, participants gestured the function and meanings of these fake words.<\/p>\n

However, what was interesting was what they found regarding TOT states. It would make sense that the amount of TOT states a person has increases with age, right? You\u2019re getting older, you\u2019re brain isn\u2019t as sharp as it used to be, it must be natural! Well, Pring and Dipper found that this isn\u2019t always the case! Yes, the older participants did experience more TOT states in the naming task than did the younger participants. However, they also found that the older participants actually had fewer TOT states in the narrative task. To explain this interesting finding, experimenters looked into the type of learning the two groups were participating in. The younger group, with those sharp minds, was making the attempt to encode, or input the information into their memory. When it came to the narrative task, they actively searched for the information they encoded and gestured the functions of the pseudo words that were now in their knowledge base. On the other hand, the older group circumlocuted in the narrative task, explaining what they saw in an unnecessary amount of words while avoiding the pseudoword. When they circumlocuted, they did not try and access the pseudo word, therefore their circumlocution was not accompanied by iconic gestures. This is because they did not make the effort to memorize the pseudoword. The difference in learning and approaching the tasks reflected the difference in age and memory ability.<\/p>\n

Despite these differences, it is clear that with TOT states come iconic gestures. So, the next time your friends are making fun of you for waving your hands around when you\u2019re experiencing a TOT state, you don\u2019t have to use the excuse \u201cIt\u2019s not my fault, I\u2019m Italian!\u201d Simply let them know you\u2019re just doing everything you can to access that nagging word you know<\/em> you know. Guess what, your hands are helping!<\/p>\n

Also check out my peer’s blog<\/a>\u00a0on how gestures help us explain things we can not articulate and how gesturing can actually enhance learning!<\/p>\n

Pring, T., Dipper, L. T., Theocharopoulou, F., & Cocks, N.\u00a0(2015). TOT Phenomena: Gesture Production in Younger and Older Adults. Psychology and Aging, 30(2), <\/em>245-252.<\/em><\/p>\n

Images:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/mercercognitivepsychology.pbworks.com\/w\/page\/32859313\/Tip-of-the-Tongue%20Phenomenon<\/p>\n

One Fish Two Fish – real and pseudo words game<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n