why-your-brain-just-cant-remember-that-word?
no-to...@motz.invalid
usenet ? The censoring is good, but why are all reply-posts
limited to 12 hours after the OP's post ? Serious though needs
to be slept-on ? I'd like my observations on this topic to
get back to the researchers, but refuse to follow the Web-based
filling in of registration-details.
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http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17263
-why-your-brain-just-cant-remember-that-word.html
?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=dn17263
>In tip-of-the-tongue experiences, for instance, words suddenly
>and perplexingly go missing only to reappear seconds or minutes
>later.
>bilinguals seem especially prone to these momentary lapses
>in vocabulary,
>One possible explanation is that similar-sounding words compete
>for our brain's attention. Since bilinguals know twice as many
>words as monolinguals, there's more chance for tip-of-the-tongue
>experiences.
As a 1941-born I like to blame my vast accumulated knowledge, but
I suspect that 'uneducated' folks have the problem too.
The following observations/experiments make me think it's to do
with 'recent connection paths' rather than 'capacity overflow':
I have [had] working-knowledge of about 6,7..9 languages, and
observer that if you start a chain of considering, in language1:
conceptA -> conceptB -> conceptC; then it's difficult to recall
the translation of concept C into language 2.
Whereas if you'd started the concept chain in language2, it
would be difficult to 'translate' conceptC into "1".
So it's the 'recent connection paths' that associate a concept
with a word that are 'occupied' and not free for the next language.
Strangely the connection/s wordLang1 <-> wordLang2 seems not to
be a problem. This could be explained by considering the
concept, wordLang1, wordLang2 to be 3 separate entities, with
3 possible inter-connecting paths. But once concept <-> wordLang2
is made, concept <-> wordLang1 is blocked.
A strange phemonon, which would be explained if the memories
were 'located at fixed physical space with fixed connections',
like a physical computer [which I don't believe is the case],
is that I can repeatedly, and right now too, not recall this
well known and easy to pronounce black-US-pianist-composer-
well-repected-senior-citizen.
I think it's associated with "..man..". And when I dig it out
it will become lost again, next time I 'think of words which
get lost' ?!
It's good that both arms of the abusive WinTel
monopoly have been hit now.