Word retrieval (or word finding) is the cognitive-linguistic process of recalling and producing the correct word when needed. It involves activating the word’s meaning (semantics) and sound form (phonology) from one’s mental lexicon. Word-retrieval difficulty is a hallmark of aphasia (especially anomic aphasia) – a person knows what they want to say but cannot pull up the word, resulting in pauses, fillers (“um…”), circumlocutions (talking around the word), or errors like saying a related word (semantic paraphasia) or jumbled word (phonemic paraphasia). Word-finding problems are also seen in other conditions (e.g., in normal aging as “tip-of-the-tongue” experiences, in traumatic brain injury, or in children with specific language impairment).
Nickels, L. (2002). Therapy for naming disorders: Revisiting, revising, and reviewing. Aphasiology, 16(10–11), 935–979. Link
Wisenburn, B., & Mahoney, K. (2009). A meta‑analysis of word‑finding treatments for aphasia. Aphasiology, 23(11), 1338–1352. Link
