Role of Phonological and Semantic Information on Tip-of-the-Tongue States: Evidence from Spanish-English Bilinguals

Abstract

Prior research has shown that the rate of feeling that a word is "on the tip of the tongue" is influenced by phonological (sound) processing. The present research tested the hypothesis that both phonological (sound) and semantic (meaning) processing influence TOT. In the experiment, Spanish-English bilinguals named English words when cued with written definitions. When the correct word was not produced, a secondary task was performed in which a Spanish word was rated on its ease of pronunciation. Half of the time, the Spanish word was similar to the English word; the words were similar 1) both in sound and meaning; 2) in sound only; or 3) in meaning only. The results confirmed the hypothesis, showing that more correct responses occurred when the Spanish word was similar to the English target word in both sound and meaning than when the Spanish word was similar in sound only or meaning only.