The CEU Department of Philosophy cordially invites you to a talk
(as part of its Departmental Colloquium series)
by
Clotilde Calabi (University of Milan)
on
“Ancona”? Aha, that’s her name!
Tots and Clicks
Tuesday, 28 January, 2014, 5.30 PM, Zrinyi 14, Room 412
ABSTRACT
Someone asks me what is her name. I feel I know it. As we often say,
her name is on the tip of my tongue. I can’t say it now, but I am sure
that in a few moments it will come back.
Sometimes I do not make efforts to recall. I sit back and let the
question linger on me. One minute later, the answer comes out. It is as
if the obstacles occluding it are gone all together and I have done
nothing to remove them. I shout: “Ancona!”. I feel that that the word
clicks. Yet, generally, I do make efforts and try to recall the name by
relying on some cues. In fact, I do not have a total blank. I remember
something and I try to fill the gap by deliberately retrieving
information I have about the bearer of the name and some other general
information. If there is no general information to retrieve, I may also
go through the alphabet letter by letter, until I find the letter that
helps me to fill the gap. Or, I recall in some way how the word sounds –
where is the pitch, whether it is an open mouth word, and so on - and
search, until I find it. Again, the word clicks. It may also happen
that I give one answer and immediately afterwards I acknowledge that I
was wrong and correct myself. For example, after saying “Ancona”, I
rejoin “No, wait a minute. It is D’Ancona”. Now it clicks!
In all these cases, first I have the feeling that I am about to bring
to consciousness a piece of knowledge I possess concerning a lexical
item, and then, when the lexical item pops out, I have a feeling of
rightness. Of course, I may get the name wrong: my feeling of rightness
does not entail infallibility.
Call the experience before retrieval tip of the tongue (TOT) experience
and the experience after retrieval CLICK experience. My question is what
kind of experience they are. Are they beliefs, memories, emotions, gut
feelings, or what?
Show replies by date