Key Takeaways
- Semantic satiation happens when a word is repeated until it loses meaning.
- Saying a word over and over can help make it less scary or upsetting.
- You can use semantic satiation to focus on sounds instead of word meanings when learning a new language.
Do you ever find yourself repeating a specific word in your head over and over until the word suddenly makes no sense to you and you wonder why it’s a word at all? This is just one of the many bizarre things our brains do to us, and it’s a pretty funny experience when it happens.
This phenomenon is known as semantic satiation and it causes us to perceive a real word as meaningless sounds. Sometimes that loss of meaning can be a pain, sometimes it can be useful, and sometimes, like in this creation by the poet Phil Kaye, it can even be hauntingly beautiful.
Let’s get into why this happens…happens? happens. happens. happens. happens. happens. happens. happens. happens. happens. happens. happ-ens. happ-ens. happ-ens. happ-ens. happ-ens. happ-ens. happens. happens. happens. happens. happens. Ok but seriously.
Causes
To reiterate. Semantic satiation occurs when a word is repeated over and over again until the word begins to lose its meaning to the listener. The term was first coined in 1962, but research surrounding the phenomenon dates back to the early 20th century.
There are multiple theories as to why semantic satiation occurs. One is that the repeated use of a neural pathway associated with a word impacts response times, leading to the loss of meaning. Another theory is that fatigue causes the connection between word and meaning to get jumbled.
More recently, researchers have used neural networking simulations to try to identify why the phenomenon happens and another set of researchers have found that semantic satiation delays facial expression processing.
In other words, pun intended, there isn’t a consensus as to why semantic satiation happens. Jessica McCarthy, PsyD, a licensed psychologist at Elements Psychological Services, said that, “In practice, semantic satiation is our brain wanting to get back to how it absorbs information naturally,”
“We want to be able to flow back and forth between paying attention to something and being able to take a step back from it, because it’s important for a word or information to have context, but it’s also important to not be engrossed in it,” she says.
She gives the example of reading.
“If I’m reading a book, my eyesight is flowing back and forth between looking at the words and understanding the semantic meaning behind it, but also just looking at the letters on the page as letters and symbols and putting that together.”
Studies looking at semantic satiation have typically involved the repetition of a word up to 30 times, with semantic satiation, in some cases, appearing after seven to nine repetitions. Some words used during these studies have been as short as four letters, but others have been much longer.
Uses for Semantic Satiation
Sometimes, losing the meaning of a word can actually be helpful. Judy Ravin of Accents International uses semantic satiation to help English language learners focus more on how your muscles need to move in order to make the sounds required, rather than the meaning of a particular word.
“A word in itself doesn’t actually have meaning. A word is a symbol for something, So, when we can move away from the meaning and just think about sound production, the physiology, it’s helpful.”
Jessica McCarthy, PsyD
In practice, semantic satiation is our brain wanting to get back to how it absorbs information naturally…We want to be able to flow back and forth between paying attention to something and being able to take a step back from it
— Jessica McCarthy, PsyD
Ravin said that, in her line of work, there are three aspects to think about: grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Using semantic satiation allows learners to worry less about whether they understand the tense of a word, or the exact meaning of the word, and just focus in on how to make the required sounds. When learners know that they are consistently making a sound, their confidence grows and they can transition to thinking more about adding to the words they know.
It Can Be Helpful in Therapy
Another use of semantic satiation is in mental health therapy. McCarthy said that losing the meaning of a word temporarily can help disconnect the triggering that a particular word may cause. In her work with acceptance and commitment therapy this is a version of cognitive defusion. She gave the example of helping a client through a fear of spiders by repeating the word “spider”.
“You say it over and over again, in theory, the anxiety should start to decrease because you’re exposing yourself to the emotion. It uses this word that has semantic meaning and literally becomes just a collection of sounds and syllables as opposed to this word that would originally bring on a flood of negative and unwanted thoughts and emotions.”
She also said that semantic satiation can help frame how disabled people who have hyperfixation as part of their lived experience see the world.
Examples In Everyday Life
Just because semantic satiation can be used when learning a language or debriefing in therapy doesn’t mean it’s the only place it exists. McCarthy gave the example of children asking for a cookie over and over. Ravin said she finds herself repeating the item she’s looking for when completing puzzles, one of her hobbies.
Semantic satiation can also show up in the business world, such as when your boss keeps using industry lingo over, and over, and over. From a broader industry perspective, some marketers have argued that—in a quest to instill brand loyalty and name recognition—some advertising campaigns may have inadvertently caused a case of semantic satiation for their customers.
Can Semantic Satiation Be Resolved?
While semantic satiation can be frustrating, McCarthy’s advice is to do something, anything else, other than fixating on the word in question.
One of the techniques she uses is a mindfulness technique known as mind wandering or decoupling. She believes that, while semantic satiation can be disconcerting, in a lot of cases, it’s a net positive.
“It’s almost a good technique. Where I think when people google it, they’re saying, ‘Oh, it’s this weird thing where a word used to mean something, now it’s just this weird sound in my head. That is just a collection of syllables without, without meaning.’”
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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