What was her/his name again.....ahh got it!

Question

You all know the situation described in the title. You forgot something and start to search your memory and then after quite a while it jumps right in front of you, out of nowhere.

My questions are:

What happens in the brain during that moment of awareness?
Is it different from when we know something right away, since the subconscious mind is working for quite a while to produce the answer?
Is it possible to measure this moment and was it done already?

This Question is similar to http://cogsci.stackexchange.com/q/1/421 . — John Pick, May 30 '12 at 21:03
Not sure all 3 questions should be asked in one question...I think some are a lot deeper than you might realize. — Ben Brocka, May 31 '12 at 02:06

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered May 30 '12 at 22:01

7

You'll want to look up literature on the "Tip of the Tongue" (TOT) phenomenon. It's been studied since the 60s I believe and can be experimentally reproduced.

answered May 30 '12 at 22:01

John

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Another cogsci.SE answer goes into some detail on this phenomenon. – John Pick May 30 '12 at 23:18

What was her/his name again.....ahh got it!

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