Although we usually associate the feeling of having a word "right on the tip of the tongue", and not finding the appropriate term for something that is well known to us, as a sign that something in our memory is failing, they have just shown that it does not save relationship. Timothy Salthouse of the University of Virginia worked with 700 subjects between the ages of 18 and 99 by asking them to name famous landmarks, common names, or popular people from brief descriptions or from their pictures. And let them know when they experience the frustrating sensation of having the answer "on the tip of their tongue." Thus they demonstrated that questions like "What is the name of the great waterfall in Zambia considered one of the seven wonders of the world?" Or also: "What is the name of the building where you can see the celestial bodies on the inner surface of a dome?"
The results revealed that there was no relationship between signs of dementia shown by certain memory tests and the response of patients to these questions. Therefore, frustrating as it may be, this phenomenon should be considered benign and not an indicator of cognitive decline, conclude Sathouse and colleagues in the journal Psychological Science.
