title: [The phenomenon of the tip of the tongue in aging].
abstract: This paper presents new data on the tip of the tongue (TOT) phenomenon and its resolution in aging. 140 volunteers ranging from 19 to 82 years participated in an experiment using definitions about common names, proper names, adjectives and verbs to elicit TOTs. We studied the resolution of the TOTs introducing a free word-recall task and a priming task. Older adults experienced more TOTs than younger adults regardless of the level of vocabulary. Phonological priming, and not free recall of words, improved resolution for the older adults. The results are discussed in relation to the theory of the transmission deficit.
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Spain. pejuncos@usc.es
authors.forename: Onésimo
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Juncos-Rabadán
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Facal
authors.forename: Montserrat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alvarez
authors.forename: María Soledad
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D010700:Phonetics; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014825:Vocabulary; D014888:Wechsler Scales