The phenomenon of the tip of the tongue is caused by the temporary suppression of memory content by the brain. This inhibition comes from many aspects, such as the memory of other parts of the characteristics of related things, which covers up the characteristics to be recalled; For example, the interference of situational factors and their own emotional factors in memory and so on.
When the inhibition is eliminated, if prompted by others, leave the situation that is difficult to recall and eliminate the tension, the tongue tip phenomenon will often disappear.
Studies have shown that young people have an average of 0.98 TOT times per week, and the elderly have 1.65 times. On average, people speak 120 ~ 250 words per minute (80 ~ 160 Chinese characters), and the numbers will double when the speech speed is fast; In the actual speech with clear pronunciation, people's average vocabulary per minute will approach the upper limit.
So, imagine how quickly we need to go deep into the brain storage area, extract the words we need, and then form a coherent sentence.
This is obviously a very fast process, and have you ever thought about how complicated this task is?
There are many words in our brain lexicon, and there are many suitable words to choose from for what we want to express. How many words are stored in our brains? The answer is that no one knows.
Geoffrey Beattie, a British psychologist and expert in nonverbal communication, concluded through experiments that TOT is often accompanied by the following behaviors (these behaviors are very important for distinguishing the state of TOT):
1. Oral description, such as "Oh, my God, I know!" Or "Oh, what's it called?"
2. Specific facial expressions, such as facial muscle twitching;
3. Specific body movements, such as leaning forward and putting your head in your arm;
4. Unique head movements, such as leaning back, drooping or turning to one side;
5. Unique foot and leg movements, such as excessive knocking on the ground and shaking.
But you don't have to care too much. In fact, apart from exams, TOT does not have much influence on people's daily lives.