Tip of the tongue phenomenon: Access to Word Semantic Priming Using Visual Priming vs.

TIP OF THE TONGUE PHENOMENON: THE WORD THROUGH ACCESS TO PRIMING SEM? NICT VS. VISUAL PRIMING

Summary



The well-known phenomenon of "Tip of the Tongue? ("I know I know something but I can not remember, but I have it on the tip of the tongue?) Is a subjective state that, on occasion, a person experiences when he is sure he knows a certain word but at the same time, can not access it and broadcast it. This would be a selective failure in lexical retrieval from semantic memory.



This is a research design to analyze the effect of priming in two varieties: semantic vs perceptual (visual), the PL phenomenon. Participate in the experiment 180 subjects (men / women), aged 25 to 55 years, in different age groups. Controlling for educational level and type of semantic priming, seen only in the form of associations.

The assumption made is that they expect to get better latency response time to the task of inducing this phenomenon PL semantic priming when presented visual priming. They discuss the results taking into account the results of the investigations of Brown and McNeill, and in relation to theories of connectionist models.

Keywords: tip of the tongue phenomenon - priming effect - lexical access

Introduction

According to Levelt (1989), adult secondary education has an active vocabulary contains about thirty thousand words, which makes it understandable that the study of lexical access process is so fascinating to researchers trying to discover how you can conduct an election as the right word rapidly during fluent speech, requiring only a series of lexical retrieval processes virtually automated. However, in certain circumstances, there are difficulties in accurately select a word in all that we have available in our lexicon adult.

Different conditions or disorders can cause difficulties of access to language. Since gravity can be posed by aphasia and other language problems have been caused by brain damage, to the speech or errors known phenomenon of the tip of the tongue, which can be considered more "normal? and everyday, there are more important. The latter, the tip of the tongue phenomenon has aroused special interest in scientific research to investigate the processes of selection and production of words.

The phenomenon of the tip of the tongue (PL, in Castilian, TOT "Tip of tongue?, In English) is so in relation to lexical processing, a clear example that the subject may be difficult or blocked access to momentary phonological representation of the word. This seems especially the older appellant tell the person, according to various research (Maylor, 1990 ª, Brown and Nix, 1996). Therefore, in this experiment, there would include elderly, in order to control this effect.

During the state of PL, there is the intense feeling of knowing the word, of being about to come to consciousness, but is not accessed. The person tends to remember information surface of the search term, try searching for synonyms or alternative words as a strategy to infer and give the word. The man known to have the phonetic information they need and have it stored in its memory and, eventually, eventually able to access it. It is a common and frequent phenomenon among the population, particularly in old age, but even talk of a higher frequency among students for the demands. The highest probability is usually given by name, followed by common and, finally, verbs and adjectives.

From the theoretical point of view, there is general agreement from connectionist models (MacKay & Burke, 1990) and from serial models (Levelt, Roelofs and Meyer, 1999) that the problem is a failure once phonological activation activates the corresponding semantic representation.

Brown and McNeill (1966) devised an experiment in which the phenomenon was studied by presenting definitions of rare words to which participants had to answer three written responses: they knew the word, did not know, she was known but did not remember. The research results showed that in a state of PL, the speaker has information about the word fails to recover, especially the start and end point, the number of syllables and main stress position, demonstrating that the no lexical retrieval is done from the all or nothing, in a single step, but there are at least two distinct types of cognitive representations: information phonological and semantic information, and access to which also corresponds to different processes.

Connectionist models we propose the brain and neural metaphor that explains the cognitive processes of lexical access through "neural networks? composed of nodes and connections between these nodes. According to this model, the units most frequently used words are tightly pushed more closely with the lower level nodes, such as phonological and orthographic. Thus, when a node is activated or there is a connection, activation will spread in all directions, increasing all visual representations that resemble, phonological and semantic search word. Moreover, each time a word is processed, strengthen the connections for this word (McClelland and Rumelhart, 1981), so that one of the important aspects of this model would be the frequency of the word, which would make high-frequency words would not be susceptible of PL, while the low-self would be, because the model calls for a central importance to the strength of connections (the higher the frequency of word usage, stronger connections, less risk of PL ).

Guided by the results obtained by Brown and McNeill, and taking into consideration the explanation of connectionist models, we consider this experiment in order to obtain experimental evidence in favor of a trigger type of semantic or perceptual type, which would prior activation and reduce the latency time in the recovery of the word in the PL as well as confirmation of the theory are affected more by this phenomenon of low frequency words, resulting in a time of greater reaction to them.

Therefore, the tasks presented in two kinds of facilitators (priming), a perceptual priming and semantic priming in similar categories of words that can be compared, and classified into high and low frequency.

The priming effect refers to the stimulus has an influence on the subsequent performance of the processing system (Schacter, 1995). We can distinguish various types of priming, including the design chosen for this research: the perceptual priming and semantic priming (Blaxton, 1989).

The semantic priming is affected by manipulations of the level of processing, whereas perceptual priming is susceptible to physical manipulations of the stimuli.

The perceptual priming is one that will be expressed through indirect evidence. In these tests, the processing is determined by the physical characteristics of the keys of the experiment. Tulving & Schacter Under (1990), is a pre-semantic phenomenon reflecting the activity of the Perceptual Representation System. The format can raise visual, auditory, olfactory, haptic. In the experiment, will be presented in visual format.

The semantic priming is one that will be expressed through indirect evidence which requires conceptual processing of stimuli. It can be affected by semantic encoding operations, and it is practically sensitive to changes in the surface properties of the information. The processing of stimuli and their recovery is implicitly based on the semantic organization (Tulving & Schacter, 1990). One aspect that we will consider when choosing the semantic priming will be that offered Shelton and Martin (1992) in their research, that is, there is a distinction between associative and semantic priming nonassociative, as the priming Automatic obtained for associatively related words, but not for words that are semantically related but not associatively. This could also influence the latency time to study. According to experimental results de Groot (1990), facilitation effects are shown only in the associatively related condition. In our case, therefore, to present a greater facilitation, present only associative semantic priming.

Finally, according to Craik & Lockhart (1972), two processing levels: superficial and deep. Information is encoded on a superficial level when it comes to processing according to the characteristics of the stimulus, while the deep processing would be one that occurs from the production of meaning.

Method

Participants

The research involved 180 subjects (90 men and 90 women) voluntarily, 25 to 55 years, divided into six age groups (25-30/31-35/36-40/41-45/46-50 / 51-55). It controls the educational level factor, selecting all subjects with a medium / upper (bachelor / university degree). The recruitment will be made between different groups, participating without any compensation. Participants presented no sensory disturbances, neurological or substance that may affect the development of tasks.



Materials

As devices have been used two computers, which have appeared definitions, a questionnaire in which each individual must provide their name, age and sex, and a pencil to point to.

With regard to the facilitators presented, the computer has been used both with the appearance of priming (either semantic or visual) when PL is producing the phenomenon, by pressing the button "intro?. Thus, it is only in this moment when it appears the facilitator to help the speaker to emit the target word.

The target words are a total of 80 words, a mixture of high and low frequency, divided into categories: common names, city names, landmarks, famous people and adjectives. These categories are similar to those used by other researchers, Burke et al. (1991). It is considered to present a large number of words since reproduction of the phenomenon is complex laboratory PL, hence, to try to present a sufficient number of opportunities and to produce the phenomenon PL.

For definitions will use the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (In http://www.rae.es/) (V.2003). In the case of emblematic city names and celebrities, were made ad hoc definitions.

To choose the low-frequency words, we used the frequency dictionary Cuetos Alameda (1995), using words like mausoleum, dungeon, lockets, etc ... The high-frequency words are words that are used regularly in everyday contexts.

For each of the definitions, semantic or facilitator prepares a visual facilitator.

An example of a word: Celebrities -> Elisabeth Taylor

Definition: Actress who started in the film world with the age of seven years, married numerous times and has been a couple of Richard Burton in a very famous movie. / Priming visual scene from the movie "Lassie? in which the actress appears

An example of a word: low frequency common name Zeppelin

Definition: 1. m. More dirigible (RAE) / Priming visual picture of a zeppelin

An example of a word: high-frequency common name Pot

Definition: 1. f. Round vessel of clay or metal, commonly a belly, neck and mouth wide and one or two handles, which is used to cook food, heat water, etc.. (RAE) / Priming semantic associative pot to pot

Procedure

The experiment was performed individually in a well lit room and quiet. Each session should not exceed 15 minutes to avoid fatigue effects. Before starting the task, you are offered an extensive explanation of the task to perform as well as records that must be done, delivering the material. In each session, will be a researcher who collected the reaction times between the onset of the definition on the screen to advance to the next definition, through a specific program time recording on another computer.

The procedure is a word recall task under conditions of PL. Consist of the following:

On the computer screen will appear the definitions of target words. We will not consider the time of presentation, we do not consider it relevant to experiment. The definition may still be present all the necessary time to the next. Given these, the subject must write to the questionnaire shall be provided for the corresponding word.

a) If you know the word and get the evocation, press the green button, set the effect to

the following definition.

b) If you do not know the word or introduces the PL, press the red button to advance to the

following definition.

c) If the PL occurs, ie if I know but can not access it, will tighten

yellow button will appear at random, one priming (semantic or visual). If you have

with the facilitator, the person fails to give the word, you push the red button again

to take you to the following definition. In this case, noted in the questionnaire

record a "x? in the box "did not get access to the word?. If

given the fact that not get access to the word in question, but

synonymous word appears, it will be recorded also in the questionnaire, we

also return a value indicative of the words "intruder? (Alternative words

persistent blocking the onset of the target word) which, although not a cause

This research can give us a benchmark for other

experiments.

With regard to pre-experiment trials, each subject can perform four practice trials. He explains that it is a memory research, but are not told which concerns the PL phenomenon.

Design

In the work presented uses a 6x2x1x4x2x2x2 mixed factorial design with two between-subject independent variables (age and sex variable) and five independent variables within subjects (task, category, frequency, prime and target).

Between-subject independent variable "age? 6 levels (25-30/31-35/36-40/41-45/46-50/51-55) between-subject independent variable "Sex? with 2 levels (male / female) within-subjects independent variable "Task? with 1 level (recall of words) within-subjects independent variable "category? with 4 levels (common names, cities, landmarks, famous people, adjectives) within-subjects independent variable "Frequency" with 2 levels (high frequency, low frequency) within-subjects independent variable "Prime? with 2 levels (visual, semantic) within-subjects independent variable "Target? with 2 levels (word, not word)

The dependent variable was the time that the subject took to issue the response, ie the reaction time.

Results

What is expected is lower latency, depending on the priming presented and based on word frequency (high or low), confirming the connectionist theory and confirming that the lower latency corresponds to the presentation of a priming determined or not.

Based on connectionist models and the results obtained by researchers Brown and McNeill, whereby the frequency of the word is relevant when the phenomenon of PL, which are a series of activities at the visual, semantic and phonological as the connection is a node and that the speaker has the information of the word, such as starting and ending point, the number of syllables and main stress position, the results are expected from a lower latency when display definitions / questions about high-frequency words, and the novelty is expected to know what type of activation prevails over the other based on the results of Brown and McNeil. That is, given that they obtained the result that the talking has information of the word, though I can not access it, the experiment will check whether you get lower response times, even when aid is being done with a non-phonological and semantic priming that would be the best that could facilitate access of the word according to them. In the analysis of the corresponding results will exclude all data we obtain on correct answers but the phenomenon does not occur under PL as well as incorrect answers, which do not correspond with the target word.

Discussion

Considering that this research is only a design proposal, we have no definite results of reaction times to verify the hypothesis at the beginning of the report and review, thus, whether or not the results confirm the predictions pointed. Therefore, depending on whether these predictions are fulfilled or not, we may conclude that in lexical access connectionist model is confirmed in the sense that they produce different activations (visual, phonological and semantic) and, also can be a process of competition between these activities, pointing to the way interactive activation model (IAM) of McClelland and Rumelhart (1981), when describing the recognition of words by a trigger mechanism in parallel and in competition the lexical level of representation. Moreover, depending on the results obtained with the presentation of the two facilitators, as if a greater effect of PL in the words of high or low frequency, we obtain a new confirmation of the data obtained by Brown and McNeill, and also confirm connectionist models for each time a word is processed strengthen connections (McClelland and Rumelhart, 1981), which would lead to the conclusion that low-frequency words will be candidates for the problems of access to them before the high frequency.

Through investigations of lexical access, we can implement different strategies for different training language difficulties, such as strategies for individuals with language disorders may perform certain workouts for better utilization of their resources or strategies for students with learning through the development of language games.

In conclusion, the study of lexical access and transfer processes in the network of nodes and activities have not reached definitive conclusions so that all types of research being done on this will contribute greatly to alleviate or improve different language disorders, essential aspect of human beings in their social interaction.

References and Resources

Alameda, J.R. and Cuetos, F. (1995). Dictionary of units of Castilian Language: Volume I: Alphabetical / Volume II: Order of Frequency. Publications Services at the University of Oviedo

Alameda, J. R. & Cuetos, F. (2001). ? Indices of frequency and neighborhood for five-letter words. Electronic Journal of Applied Methodology, 6, 1-62. In http://www.psico.uniovi.es/REMA/

Brown, R., and McNeill, D. (1966). The "tip of the tongue" phenomenon. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 5, 325-337.

Brown, A. & Nix, L. (1996). "Age-related Changes inthe Tip-of-the Tongue Experience?. The American Journal of Psychology. Vol 109 (1), 79-91. Retrieved May 15, 2008 in http://www.jstor.org/stable/1422928

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