Abstract
Proper names are especially prone to retrieval failures and tip-of-the-tongue states (TOTs)—a phenomenon wherein a person has a strong feeling of knowing a word but cannot retrieve it. Current research provides mixed evidence regarding whether related names facilitate or compete with target-name retrieval. We examined this question in two experiments using a novel paradigm where participants either read a prime name aloud (Experiment 1) or classified a written prime name as famous or non-famous (Experiment 2) prior to naming a celebrity picture. Successful retrievals decreased with increasing trial number (and was dependent on the number of previously presented similar famous people) in both experiments, revealing a form of accumulating interference between multiple famous names. However, trial number had no effect on TOTs, and within each trial famous prime names increased TOTs only in Experiment 2. These results can be explained within a framework that assumes competition for selection at the point of lexical retrieval, such that successful retrievals decrease after successive retrievals of proper names of depicted faces of semantically similar people. By contrast, the effects of written prime words only occur when prime names are sufficiently processed, and do not provide evidence for competition but may reflect improved retrieval relative to a “don’t know” response.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
We note that the pattern of results reported here does not change if we conduct the analysis using the full, unfiltered dataset.
We thank an anonymous reviewer for pointing us in this direction.
Note that, if we do not exclude trials based on the whether the prime name was classified correctly, the average number of remaining trials per participant is comparable to that of Experiment 1, M = 55.29, SD = 6.39. Additionally, if we do not consider whether participants correctly classified the prime name in Experiment 2, the percentage of trials that were excluded per response is comparable to Experiment 1 (i.e., 6%, 27%, 12%, and 8% for GOTs, TOTs, DKs, and FAMILIARs, respectively). As in Experiment 1, the pattern of results reported does not change if we perform the analysis with the full, unfiltered dataset.
References
Abrams, L., & Davis, D. K. (2017). Competitors or teammates: How proper names influence each other. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 26(1), 87–93. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721416677804
Anderson, M. C., & Neely, J. H. (1996). Interference and inhibition in memory retrieval. In E. L. Bjork & R. A. Bjork (Eds.), Memory: Handbook of perception and cognition (2nd ed., pp. 237–313). Academic Press.
Bates, D., Maechler, B., Bolker, B., & Walker, S. (2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67, 1–48. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01
Brédart, S. (1993). Retrieval failures in face naming. Memory, 1(4), 351–366. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658219308258243
Brédart, S. (2017). The cognitive psychology and neuroscience of naming people. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 83, 145–154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.10.008
Brédart, S., & Dardenne, B. (2015). Similarities between the target and the intruder in naturally occurring repeated person naming errors. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1474. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01474
Brédart, S., & Valentine, S. B. T. (1998). Descriptiveness and proper name retrieval. Memory, 6(2), 199–206. https://doi.org/10.1080/741942072
Brown, A. S. (1991). A review of the tip-of-the-tongue experience. Psychological bulletin, 109(2), 204. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.109.2.204
Brown, A. S., & Nix, L. A. (1996). Age-related changes in the tip-of-the-tongue experience. The American Journal of Psychology, 109(1), 79–91. https://doi.org/10.2307/1422928
Burke, D. M., Locantore, J. K., Austin, A. A., & Chae, B. (2004). Cherry pit primes Brad Pitt: Homophone priming effects on young and older adults’ production of proper names. Psychological Science, 15(3), 164–170. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.01503004.x
Burke, D. M., MacKay, D. G., Worthley, J. S., & Wade, E. (1991). On the tip of the tongue: What causes word finding failures in young and older adults? Journal of Memory and Language, 30(5), 542–579. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-596X(91)90026-G
Cohen, G. (1990). Why is it difficult to put names to faces? British Journal of Psychology, 81(3), 287–297. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.1990.tb02362.x
Conley, P., Burgess, C., & Hage, D. (1999). Large-scale databases of proper names. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 31(2), 215–219. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03207713
Cross, E. S., & Burke, D. M. (2004). Do alternative names block young and older adults’ retrieval of proper names? Brain and Language, 89(1), 174–181. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0093-934X(03)00363-8
Dahlgren, D. J. (1998). Impact of knowledge and age on tip-of-the-tongue rates. Experimental Aging Research, 24(2), 139–153. https://doi.org/10.1080/036107398244283
Davis, D. K., & Abrams, L. (2016). Here’s looking at you: Visual similarity exacerbates the Moses illusion for semantically similar celebrities. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 42(1), 75. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000144
Deffler, S. A., Fox, C., Ogle, C. M., & Rubin, D. C. (2016). All my children: The roles of semantic category and phonetic similarity in the misnaming of familiar individuals. Memory & Cognition, 44(7), 989–999. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-016-0613-z
Dupont, M. (2018). The similarities between the target and the intruder in naturally occurring person naming errors: A comparison between repeated and single naming confusions. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 48(1), 33–42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-018-9586-3
Erickson, T. D., & Mattson, M. E. (1981). From words to meaning: A semantic illusion. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 20(5), 540–551. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5371(81)90165-1
Fogler, K. A., & James, L. E. (2007). Charlie Brown versus Snow White: The effects of descriptiveness on young and older adults’ retrieval of proper names. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 62(4), 201–207. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/62.4.P201
Gollan, T. H., & Brown, A. S. (2006). From tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) data to theoretical implications in two steps: When more TOTs means better retrieval. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 135(3), 462. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.135.3.462
Gollan, T. H., Ferreira, V. S., Cera, C., & Flett, S. (2014). Translation-priming effects on tip-of-the-tongue states. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 29(3), 274–288. https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2012.762457
Griffin, Z. M., & Wangerman, T. (2013). Parents accidentally substitute similar sounding sibling names more often than dissimilar names. PLOS ONE, 8(12), e84444. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0084444
Hanley, J. R., & Chapman, E. (2008). Partial knowledge in a tip-of-the-tongue state about two-and three-word proper names. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 15(1), 156–160. https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.15.1.156
Harley, T. A., & Bown, H. E. (1998). What causes a tip-of-the-tongue state? Evidence for lexical neighbourhood effects in speech production. British Journal of Psychology, 89(1), 151–174. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.1998.tb02677.x
Huebert, A. M., McNeely-White, K. L., & Cleary, A. M. (2023). On the relationship between tip-of-the-tongue states and partial recollective experience: Illusory partial recollective access during tip-of-the-tongue states. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 152(2), 542–570. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001292
Huijbers, W., Papp, K. V., LaPoint, M., Wigman, S. E., Dagley, A., Hedden, T., Sperling, R. A. (2017). Age-related increases in tip-of-the-tongue are distinct from decreases in remembering names: A functional MRI study. Cerebral Cortex, 27(9), 4339–4349. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhw234
Kliegl, O., Pastötter, B., & Bäuml, K. H. T. (2015). The contribution of encoding and retrieval processes to proactive interference. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 41(6), 1778–1789. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000096
Kuznetsova, A., Brockhoff, P. B., & Christensen, R. H. B. (2017). lmerTest package: Tests in linear mixed effects models. Journal of Statistical Software, 82, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v082.i13
Levelt, W. J. (1993). Speaking: From intention to articulation (Vol. 1). MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/6393.001.0001
Marful, A., Paolieri, D., & Bajo, M. T. (2014). Is naming faces different from naming objects? Semantic interference in a face-and object-naming task. Memory & Cognition, 42(3), 525–537. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-013-0376-8
Meyer, A. S., & Bock, K. (1992). The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon: Blocking or partial activation? Memory & Cognition, 20(6), 715–726. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03202721
Mortensen, L., Meyer, A. S., & Humphreys, G. W. (2006). Age-related effects on speech production: A review. Language and Cognitive Processes, 21(1/3), 238–290. https://doi.org/10.1080/01690960444000278
Oberle, S., & James, L. E. (2013). Semantically-and phonologically-related primes improve name retrieval in young and older adults. Language and cognitive processes, 28(9), 1378–1393. https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2012.685481
Peirce, J., Gray, J. R., Simpson, S., MacAskill, M., Höchenberger, R., Sogo, H., Lindeløv, J. K. (2019). PsychoPy2: Experiments in behavior made easy. Behavior Research Methods, 51(1), 195–203. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-018-01193-y
Ramscar, M., Hendrix, P., Shaoul, C., Milin, P., & Baayen, H. (2014). The myth of cognitive decline: Non-linear dynamics of lifelong learning. Topics in Cognitive Science, 6(1), 5–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12078
Resnik, K., Bradbury, D., Barnes, G. R., & Leff, A. P. (2014). Between thought and expression, a magnetoencephalography study of the “tip-of-the-tongue” phenomenon. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 26(10), 2210–2223. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00611
Rose, S. B., Aristei, S., Melinger, A., & Abdel Rahman, R. (2019). The closer they are, the more they interfere: Semantic similarity of word distractors increases competition in language production. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 45(4), 753–763. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000592
Salthouse, T. A., & Mandell, A. R. (2013). Do age-related increases in tip-of-the-tongue experiences signify episodic memory impairments? Psychological Science, 24(12), 2489–2497. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613495881
Shafto, M. A., Burke, D. M., Stamatakis, E. A., Tam, P. P., & Tyler, L. K. (2007). On the tip-of-the-tongue: Neural correlates of increased word-finding failures in normal aging. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19(12), 2060–2070. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2007.19.12.2060
Shipley, W. C. (1940). A self-administering scale for measuring intellectual impairment and deterioration. The Journal of Psychology, 9(2), 371–377. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.1940.9917704
Stasenko, A., & Gollan, T. H. (2019). Tip of the tongue after any language: Reintroducing the notion of blocked retrieval. Cognition, 193, 104027. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104027
Underwood, B. J. (1957). Interference and forgetting. Psychological Review, 64(1), 49–60. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0044616
Vitkovitch, M., Potton, A., Bakogianni, C., & Kinch, L. (2006). Will Julia Roberts harm Nicole Kidman? Semantic priming effects during face naming. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 59(6), 1134–1152. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724980543000178
Watkins, O. C., & Watkins, M. J. (1975). Buildup of proactive inhibition as a cue-overload effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 1(4), 442–452. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.1.4.442
Weinstein, Y., McDermott, K. B., & Szpunar, K. K. (2011). Testing protects against proactive interference in face–name learning. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18(3), 518–523. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-011-0085-x
White, K. K., Abrams, L., & Frame, E. A. (2013). Semantic category moderates phonological priming of proper name retrieval during tip-of-the-tongue states. Language and Cognitive Processes, 28(4), 561–576. https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2012.658408
Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (1993). Proactive interference and the dynamics of free recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 19(5), 1024–1039. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.19.5.1024
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by NIA (AG076415), NSF (BCS1923065), and NINDS (F32NS119285).
Open practices statement
The experimental stimuli are available online through various media outlets (e.g., https://mymodernmet.com/then-and-now-celebrity-photos-ard-gelinck/) and Ard Gelinck’s Instagram page (@ArdGelinck). A full list of the celebrities used as experimental stimuli can be found in the online supplement. The data are publicly available on the Open Science Framework and can be accessed at https://osf.io/zr9mp/?view_only=5fb22710ce2c40e7a2faa2cce60729b5. The experimental design and plans for analysis were not preregistered.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
ESM 1
(DOCX 130 kb)
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Bannon, J., Ferreira, V.S., Stasenko, A. et al. Competition accumulates in successive retrieval of proper names. Mem Cogn 52, 197–210 (2024). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-023-01455-x
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-023-01455-x