A Pluto.Studio app
Debias Spot your own cognitive biases · Android · Free

Tip of the Tongue

The tip-of-the-tongue state is the feeling of knowing a word or fact but being temporarily unable to recall it.

What should be remembered Storing memories by experience

This cognitive bias occurs when you feel certain you know something but cannot retrieve it immediately. It often happens with names or words, caused by a partial memory activation. For example, you might know an actor's face but struggle to recall their name, feeling it's just out of reach.

Would you catch it?

Recognising a definition is not the same skill as spotting it.

Two scenarios from the app, with distractors drawn from the same family of biases — which is what makes them hard.

Scenario 1Which bias?

Ben is writing a recipe for a friend. He needs to list a key ingredient but can't remember its name. He knows it's a type of root vegetable and is sure he's used it before, but he has to look it up in another recipe.

Scenario 2Which bias?

During a game night, a player knows the answer to a charades clue. He can act out the word perfectly, but when he tries to say it, the word escapes him, and he has to wait for it to come back.

100+ more scenarios for this bias alone. 18,869 across all 188 — plus a log of which biases are yours.
Get Debias free
Related

Biases rarely arrive alone.

Understand more. Assume less.

188 biases, 18,869 scenarios, and a record of how you actually decide.

Get Debias on Google Play
Free · No account required

← Browse all 188 biases