Tip of the Tongue and Feeling of Knowing Experiences: A Developmental Study of Memory Monitoring

WELLMAN, HENRY M. Tip of the Tongue and Feeling of Knowing Experiences: A Developmental Study of Memory Monitoring. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 13-21. Kindergarten, first-, and third-grade children were presented depicted items and asked to name them. For each item they could not name they were asked to judge: (a) if they felt they knew the name and so would be able to recognize it, and (b) if they had seen the depicted item before. Recognition for names was subsequently tested. In relation to a, accuracy of predicted recognition increased with age. In relation to b, judgments of having seen the item were very accurate predictors of recognition at all ages. It was concluded that though younger subjects were poor at predicting future recognition, they had available relevant information for the task. Poor performance resulted from not using the relevant information as a basis for the predictions. The conclusions were related to the concept of memory monitoring.