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We've all been there. You're in the middle of a conversation or a presentation and suddenly your mind goes blank. What was that basic word, the one that I really really should know? Your panicked reaction to this untimely brain freeze only makes things worse, as your mind desperately scrabbles for an alternative word meaning something similar. Any alternative. "Shiny crumb," was what University of Cambridge physicist Paul Coxon eventually blurted out, having inconveniently slipped over the word "photon," a term that he would otherwise casually refer to several times a day. Naturally, his fellow scientists found it hilarious that Paul, with a Ph.D. in physics, was capable of such a catastrophic brain fart. It happens to the best of us! Paul took to Twitter to share his funny mistake and found that he certainly isn't alone who's sometimes having trouble with English words!
"I was talking with a colleague about how we can control the routes photons, i.e., particles of light, can take as they pass through the various solar photovoltaic materials and my mind just went blank," Paul explained to Bored Panda. "We were in the department tea room and there were crumbs on the table so I guess my mind just jumped and switched photons - a word I must say dozens of times a day, for “shiny… crumbs”. I can’t properly describe it. We both saw the funny side."
"My department has lots of very bright students and researchers from all over the world and I have immense respect for my colleagues studying for PhDs in what may be their second or even third language." Since my Tweet, lots of people on Twitter replied sharing their own funny stories when their minds have gone blank and forgotten words, and lots have been hilarious. The human mind is remarkable."
"I’ve also received several very nice emails from people with cognitive conditions, or are undergoing medical treatment which can cause some language impairment, saying how much they enjoyed to see folk “even those with advanced degrees” struggling with describing words too and it made them feel less alone, knowing that it happens to everyone."
Scroll down to read people's own hilariously funny Tweets for yourself, and share your own in the comments!
Image credits: paulcoxon
Image credits: paulcoxon
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It turns out that this "tip of the tongue" phenomenon has a name: lethologica. Psychologists define the feeling as a feeling that accompanies the temporary inability to retrieve information from memory. Researchers have looked into lethologica and found some interesting aspects to this frustrating feeling.
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The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is universal.Surveys suggest that around 90 percent of speakers of different languages from all over the world report experiencing moments where memories seem momentarily inaccessible.
These moments occur quite often and this frequency increases with age. Young people typically have tip-of-the-tongue moments about once each week, while older adults find that they may occur as often as once each day.
People often remember partial bits of information. For example, they may remember the letter the word they are searching for begins with or the number of syllables the word contains.
#5
Alexandru Bucur 5 years ago
As someone who speaks five languages fluently, that happens. All. The. Time. it is incredibly annoying - you'd be speaking along and suddenly, blank. The word you're looking for in French is just not there... and instead you brains offers you this Italian word, which might not even be the correct one, but just homonym and simply won't take no for an answer. Nine times out of ten I end up having to either resort to a third language, like English in order to avoid "Buffy Speak".
When you experience lethologica, you know that the word you are looking for is there, it's just tantalisingly outside of your grasp. It seems to have been closed off, behind some kind of mental brick wall. When something finally comes along to trigger the missing information, the sense of relief is real! There doesn't appear to be any particular reason why lethologica happens, beyond being simply tired, or perhaps the memory wasn't properly stored in the first place. Interestingly the phenomenon occurs more frequently in bilingual people, suggesting that the presence of competing words for the same meaning can have an interfering influence.
#6
Šimon Špaček 5 years ago
Sounds like one of my best friends who once asked for "woody music thingy with moving pins". Guitar was just too hard to remember...
So what can you do when you are struck by a "tip-of-the-tongue" moment? One tentative study suggests it could be as simple as squeezing your fist. "By clenching your left fist (or, theoretically, any significant portion of the left side of your body) you increase blood-flow to the contralateral or right hemisphere, which gives the retrieval mechanisms a lift," it is claimed. In the study they did a 90 second clench, but you can try shorter intervals for a possible memory boost. If nothing else it could relax your mind and help you to focus on something else, because the more you beat yourself up trying to remember the word, the harder it actually becomes.
#12
Alexandru Bucur 5 years ago
Now that is a good description of a tremolo. I think I'll adopt it.
#15
Christina Comboy Keller 5 years ago
My son couldn’t think of the name of his once favorite animal and kept referring to “lawn pigs” as if I should know exactly what he was talking about. It took me a minute to realize he was referring to ground hogs.
#19
Robert Thornburrow 5 years ago
That's almost a Malapropism. Some good ones are "The neighbours cooking fat just did its business in the garden again" and "Nancy is such a boiled sprat". We used have a clip show and I remember one reporter had trouble with "hypodermic needle" and called it a "hypodeemic nerdle". God bless Mrs Malaprop. :D
#22
Grazina Strolia 5 years ago
Okay, at this point it seems clear that even if we forget EVERY OTHER WORD, we will always remember the word puppy.
#23
Michel M. Prins 5 years ago
By saying that last thing it will immediately grab the attention of everyone, though.
#28
Alexandru Bucur 5 years ago
Ooh, good one. I'm stealing it and using it from now on. Next time someone chastises me that I should say "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays" because F- all those other cultures and religions which also have celebrations around that time, some of them a lot older than Christianity, I'm going to tell them I personally don't celebrate Christmas, I celebrate "Light Bush Day".
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What do you think ?
Christine Cameron 5 years ago
Worked with a gentleman who hadn't worked in 5 years due to a stroke and he'd forget words but replace them rather brilliantly without missing a beat. I'd made us all a meal once and he strolled into the kitchen an announced, "that was a meal fit for a rich castle man."
Max L. 5 years ago
The brain is a wonderful thing which know very little about. Damaged roads traffic jam will find another way for things to work. I remember a very intresting explanation by a friend who is a neurologist about the memory of who, of what, of when and of how.
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Sioux White 5 years ago
I have a medical condition that causes me to forget words. I was trying to say washing machine to my daughter and using hand gestures to describe it, she looked at me and said perplexed " a clothes rollercoaster?"
Batman 5 years ago
Once I forgot that my jet was named the Batwing, so I said ‘bat-aeroplane’!
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Mark Fuller 5 years ago
I'm rather fond of the occasion when I couldn't remember the word "lamb", so decided that "Sheeplet" would probably suffice. At least people knew what I meant!
Christine Cameron 5 years ago
Worked with a gentleman who hadn't worked in 5 years due to a stroke and he'd forget words but replace them rather brilliantly without missing a beat. I'd made us all a meal once and he strolled into the kitchen an announced, "that was a meal fit for a rich castle man."
Max L. 5 years ago
The brain is a wonderful thing which know very little about. Damaged roads traffic jam will find another way for things to work. I remember a very intresting explanation by a friend who is a neurologist about the memory of who, of what, of when and of how.
Load More Replies... Sioux White 5 years ago
I have a medical condition that causes me to forget words. I was trying to say washing machine to my daughter and using hand gestures to describe it, she looked at me and said perplexed " a clothes rollercoaster?"
Batman 5 years ago
Once I forgot that my jet was named the Batwing, so I said ‘bat-aeroplane’!
Load More Replies... Mark Fuller 5 years ago
I'm rather fond of the occasion when I couldn't remember the word "lamb", so decided that "Sheeplet" would probably suffice. At least people knew what I meant!
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