Short answer Repeat the same word again and again and its meaning briefly disappears. This is called semantic satiation.
Try saying this word over and over in your head. Apple, apple, apple, apple, apple.
apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple
Huh? Apple doesn't feel like apple anymore
Suddenly the word sounds like a strange noise. This is called semantic satiation.
Semantic satiationwhen repeating a word makes it lose its meaning for a moment
In 1962, at McGill University in Canada, Leon Jakobovits James gave it this name in his PhD thesis.
Staring at one word for a long time without saying it does something similar. It's that feeling when familiar letters suddenly look weird.
Luckily, it's only for a moment. After a bit, the word gets its meaning back.
Apple. Okay, it's apple again
Sources
Photo credits
- Adler Typewriter Keyboard Close-up.jpg, Maksym Kozlenko, CC BY-SA 4.0 (source)
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