The feeling of knowing for names of faces

Prior to this study there had been little research into the Feeling of Knowing (FOK) in response to names of faces. The literature favoured inferential theories for explaining the bases of the FOK. Experiment 1 aimed to explore thetwo leading inferential theories (the cue-familiarity hypothesis and the target-accessibility hypothesis) in relation to names of famous faces. The study required participants to indicate their familiarity with each face and to retrieve semantic knowledge, where possible, whilst making a FOK judgement and a tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) judgement. The results provide some support for both theories; however, the results suggest that neither theory can account solely for the basis of the FOK. Experiment 2 explored psychophysiological arousal of the FOK state by measuring skin conductance response (SCR). The results revealed no difference in SCR between any of the analysed states (non-FOK, FOK and TOT).