Naturally occurring and experimentally induced tip-of-the-tongue experiences in three adult age groups

Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) experiences were examined in 30 young (ages 18-24 years), 30 young-old (ages 60-74), and 30 old-old (ages 80-92) adults. In Study 1, TOT experiences were experimentally induced with definitions of to-be-retrieved targets. If the target was not retrieved, orthographic or semantic cues were provided. Age-related increases in the occurrence of TOT experiences and in the time needed to resolve TOT experiences were found for young versus young-old and young-old versus old-old groups; all comparisons were significant except for young versus young-old TOT occurrence, which approached significance. In Study 2, the same participants recorded naturally occurring TOT experiences in structured diaries during a 4-week interval. Both the number of TOT experiences and the resolution time for TOT experiences increased with age. However, the percentage of TOT experiences resolved was equal across age groups; given enough time, even the oldest participants resolved virtually all TOT experiences.