when you try to remember something, you often see/feel what it is for a second, then forget it again. How can your brain know the answer and ‘suggest’ it to you before you actually remember it?

Question

It often happens to most people: sometimes you have something on the tip of your tongue, and at times you almost remember it, but not fully. It’s almost like you can see the answer, but it fades away almost instantly and you often only remember the thing durably later.

How does it work, and why does your brain struggle to make the thought emerge clearly? I mean, either your brain knows it, or doesn’t, but it almost feels like a different person giving you hints without telling you the answer…

Hope this is clear, thanks in advance! : )

In: 25

Answer 1

Not an answer, but I thought this analogy might help.

Imagine you are in a room full of people during a party, and you ask if somebody has the time. You see from far away somebody trying to talk to you and making gestures, as if they are saying it’s 2.30, but you are not sure…, or maybe was it 3.30 ? You want to come closer, but people are moving around and bumping into you and you lose sight of the person. Few moments later you see the person again and come closer and they tell you that it’s 3.30.

Your brain is that room full of people. Your attention is trying to focus on subprocesses (some extracting, building and carrying information), but it’s a cacophony in there.

Answer 2

Just like what something looks, feels, smells, or tastes like, what something is called is also part of a memory. We’re not *entirely* sure how our brains store memories, but we think that different parts of memories are stored in different parts of the brain, and all have to be recalled at the same time to fully recreate a memory. The “tip of the tongue” effect could be that you remember what something looks or feels like, but you can’t remember what it’s called.

Brains are squishy and imperfect and constantly reshaping and remodeling their inner circuitry, it often takes multiple experiences to fully reinforce something into a long-term memory, and those may gradually fade over time. Even still it’s utterly remarkable how brains are able to recall decades old memories, even if it takes a bit of prompting.

Answer 3

We don’t really know very well how the brain works, so we don’t know the answer. Other people here will type a bunch of words suggesting some sort of answer, but they’re all vague guesses.