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Tip-Of-Tongue Article Critique

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Tip-of-the-Tongue Article Critique The ability to communicate valuable information in text is crucial. Abrams (2008), author of Tip-of-the-Tongue States Yield Language Insights, establishes a purpose to explore cognitive processes that allow pop-up resolutions and documentations of changes in these processes with healthy aging. This hypothesis is derived from the idea that an older adult will have more tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) experiences when compared to a younger population. A TOT state is a temporary inability to recall a known word at a given moment (Abrams, 2008). In this article, the author intends to establish an overview of research done with younger and older adults to determine the differences between populations as well as discuss …show more content…

This is a quality transition to the discussion of certain studies pertaining to the idea of a TOT state. Multiple studies with accompanying figures are reviewed, which involve the measurement of the TOT state. Findings indicate that word recall and the TOT resolution require the entire first syllable of the word to be uncovered, instead of just the first sound of the word. Additional studies found in the Phonology Is Everywhere section indicate that second-hand exposure to the first syllable of the “missing” word was mediated by a semantic connection, which may help resolve the TOT state. Supplementary, another experiment showed similar-sounding words in the same grammatical class may confuse the person in the TOT state, instead of helping them produce the correct word. The conclusion to this section was that only cue words from a different part of speech were helpful in resolving the TOT state (Abrams, 2008). Although results are indicated clearly, the conclusions would be better represented if Abrams summarized the statistical data before inferencing the results.
The conclusion of this article indicates that Abrams’s (2008), data shows that phonological processing can strengthen the connections between a word’s phonology and its lemma. Furthermore, Abrams expresses the importance of pop-up resolutions in older adults’ communication by stating that TOT disruptions discourage these individual’s from partaking in conversation. Overall, Abrams (2008) clearly communicates conclusions of multiple studies to determine a final solution to the TOT issue in older adults, however lacks supporting statistical data to demonstrate the significance of the inferences

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