To find out what's going on in top-level rememberers' brains, Konrad teamed up with neuroscientist Martin Dresler at Radboud University in the Netherlands.
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Weird as it might sound, there are competitive rememberers out there who can memorize a deck of cards in seconds or dozens of words in minutes.
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What's more, while the professional rememberers' brains were structurally similar to the control group, the memory athletes' brain scans showed unique patterns of activity, where brain regions that are involved in memory and cognition were statistically more likely to fire together.
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A rememberer knows individual words or phrases (sometimes entire texts) but cannot use the target language productively. Such persons are of particular interest when studying any endangered or dying language. Rememberers are contrasted with fluent or full speakers, who have a good command of the language, and semi-speakers, who have a partial command of it. The distinction between fluent speakers and rememberers is important in fieldwork, but accurately determining where a member of a language community falls on the speaker-rememberer continuum can be challenging.
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Many speakers learn the language partially, often in a simplified way, with significant influence from the majority language. They are sometimes referred to as "semi-speakers", "quasi-speakers" or "rememberers". The word semi- speaker was introduced by linguist Nancy Dorian in describing the last speakers of the East Sutherland dialect of Scottish Gaelic.Dorian, Nancy C. 1980.
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Strümpell (1922/23) reported Nimbari to be the autonym of Niam-Niam language speakers.Strümpell, F. 1922/23. 'Wörterverzeichnis der Heidensprachen des Mandaragebirges', Zeitschrift für Eingeborenensprachen 13: 47-75, 109-149. Originally, Strümpell (1910) called the language Niam-Niam, and had documented some limited data of questionable quality from elderly rememberers; the language was already no longer in everyday use at the time of data collection.
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The incomplete activation hypothesis states that TOTs occur when the target word in memory is not sufficiently activated to be recalled but rememberers can sense its presence nonetheless. The accessibility of the target word fluctuates due to factors that increase its activation level, such as cues. The target word's activation level may fluctuate to a level that is high enough for it to be retrieved and the TOT state to be resolved.
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At some point during this period, Amos and the other two members of the kherronēsioi formed an economic union (συντέλεια, synteleia) in order to pay their tributes. The members of this synteleia must have incorporated the majority of the Loryma peninsula. It is known from a set of three inscriptions (SEG 14.683; 14.684; 14.685) that Amos in ca. 200 B.C.E. had a board of hieromnamones, "sacred rememberers" that were responsible for keeping and remembering legal agreements and other juridical proceedings.
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It is no longer certain whether there are any rememberers still alive. An examples of a word used in Alderney that appears neither in standard English nor in Guernsey English is "Impôt" (meaning 'rubbish tip/recycling centre' and not 'tax/imposition' as elsewhere). In addition there is an idiosyncratic pronunciation of certain local surnames, "Dupont" as and "Simon" as , rather than the standard Parisian pronunciation. Any remainder of the historic influence of Auregnais on Alderney English is very hard to discern, since Guernésiais and Auregnais differed only slightly.
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Renowned Iroquoian and Algonquian culture expert Frank Speck made several trips to New England in the 1920s, collecting information on language, history, folklore and meeting with Indians, even paying respects to Mary Chapelle (née Crowd), who steadfastly proclaimed Indian identity and preserved some of the last traditional knowledge of the tribe. Speck, as well as anthropologist/linguist Gladys Tantaquidgeon, were even able to compile small word lists in the Massachusett language—albeit its Wampanoag dialect—by rememberers in the Mashpee and Aquinnah Wampanoag tribes, respectively. Some Indians began publicly confessing Indian identity with the adoption of Plains Indian clothing and powwows, as these were the most well- known symbols of Indian culture, and began participating in pan-Indian cultural meetings and associations, aiming to pool their knowledge and re- establish ties with other Indians.Harkin, M. E. (2004).
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