Semantic satiation

Semantic satiation (also semantic saturation) is a psychological phenomenon in which repetition causes a word or phrase to temporarily lose meaning for the listener, who then processes the speech as repeated meaningless sounds.

History and research

The phrase "semantic satiation" was coined by Leon Jakobovits James in his doctoral dissertation at McGill University, Montreal, Canada awarded in 1962. Prior to that, the expression "verbal satiation" had been used along with terms that express the idea of mental fatigue. The dissertation listed many of the names others had used for the phenomenon:

"Many other names have been used for what appears to be essentially the same process: inhibition (Herbert, 1824, in Boring, 1950), refractory phase and mental fatigue (Dodge, 1917; 1926a), lapse of meaning (Bassett and Warne, 1919), work decrement (Robinson and Bills, 1926), cortical inhibition (Pavlov, 192?), adaptation (Gibson, 1937), extinction (Hilgard and Marquis, 1940), satiation (Kohler and Wallach, 1940), reactive inhibition (Hull, 19113 [sic]), stimulus satiation (Glanzer, 1953), reminiscence (Eysenck, 1956), verbal satiation (Smith and Raygor, 1956), and verbal transformation (Warren, 1961b)." (From Leon Jakobovits James, 1962)

The dissertation presents several experiments that demonstrate the operation of the semantic satiation effect in various cognitive tasks such as rating words and figures that are presented repeatedly in a short time, verbally repeating words then grouping them into concepts, adding numbers after repeating them out loud, and bilingual translations of words repeated in one of the two languages. In each case subjects would repeat a word or number for several seconds, then perform the cognitive task using that word. It was demonstrated that repeating a word prior to its use in a task made the task somewhat more difficult.

The explanation for the phenomenon was that verbal repetition repeatedly aroused a specific neural pattern in the cortex which corresponds to the meaning of the word. Rapid repetition causes both the peripheral sensorimotor activity and the central neural activation to fire repeatedly, which is known to cause reactive inhibition, hence a reduction in the intensity of the activity with each repetition. Jakobovits James (1962) calls this conclusion the beginning of "experimental neurosemantics."

Applications

An application has been to reduce speech anxiety by stutterers by creating semantic satiation through repetition, thus reducing the intensity of negative emotions triggered during speech.

In popular culture

• In Edgar Allan Poe's 1835 short story Berenice, the protagonist describes a mental state that induced him "to repeat, monotonously, some common word, until the sound, by dint of frequent repetition, ceased to convey any idea whatever to the mind".
• In the Friends episode "The One with the Stoned Guy", the character referenced in the title repeats the word 'Tartlets' until he notes that it has "lost all meaning".
• In Terry Carr's short story "Stanley Toothbrush", the protagonist repeats the word "shelf" to himself so many times that it loses meaning, to the point where all the shelves in his house disappear. He also exhibits semantic generation when repeatedly talking about something leads it to become real.
• Semantic satiation is used extensively in Tony Burgess' novel Pontypool Changes Everything, as well as in the film adaptation of the novel.
• In the book series Guardians of Ga'Hoole, the young owls are forced to repeat their own names until they have lost all meaning and the owls can treat their assigned numbers as their new names.
• In The Simpsons episode "Radioactive Man", Milhouse complains of having to say Fallout Boy's catchphrase "Jiminy Jillickers" so often that it "loses all meaning".
• In How I Met Your Mother episode "Robin 101", Ted comments that "anything sounds weird if you say it a hundred times" and proceeds to repeat the word "bowl" until he appears confused.

See also

• Jamais vu
• Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

Further reading

• Dodge, R. "The laws of relative fatigue". Psychol. Rev. 1917 (24): 89–113.
• Don, V.J. and Weld, H.P. "Lapse of meaning with visual fixation". American Journal of Psychology. 1924 (35): 446–450.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Duncan, C.P. "On the similarity between reactive inhibition and neural satiation". American Journal of Psychology. 1956 (69): 227–235.
• Eysenck, H.J. "Cortical inhibition, figural after-effect, and theory of personality". J. Abnorm. Soc. Psychol. 1955 (51): 94–106.
• Gaynor, Miriam (1954). "An effect of satiation on recall" (Document). New York: New School for Social ResearchTemplate:Inconsistent citations{{cite document}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link) Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation.
• Severance, Elisabeth and Washburn, Margaret. "The loss of associative power in words after long fixation". American Journal of Psychology. 1907 (18): 182–186.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Smith, D.E. P., and Raygor, A.L. "Verbal satiation and personality". J. Abnrom, soc. Psychol. 1956 (52): 323–326.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Warren, R.M. "Illusory changes in repeated words: Differences between young adults and the aged". American Journal of Psychology. 1961a (74): 506–516.
• Warren, R.M. "Illusory changes of distinct speech upon repetition—the verbal transformation effect". Brit. J. Psychol. 1961b (52): 249–258.
• Wertheimer, M. (1960). F. Weinhandl (ed.). "Studies of some Gestalt qualities of words". In Gestalthaftes sehen: Ergebnisse und Aufgaben der Morphologie. Darmstadt, Germany: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
• Wertheimer, M. "The relation between the sound of a word and its meaning". American Journal of Psychology. 1958 (71): 412–415.
• Lambert, W.E. and Jakobovits, L.A. (1960). "Verbal satiation and changes in the intensity of meaning". Journal of Experimental Psychology. 1960 (60): 376–83. doi:10.1037/h0045624. PMID 13758466.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Jakobovits, L.A. and Lambert, W.E. (1961). "Semantic satiation among bilinguals". Journal of Experimental Psychology. 1961 (62): 576–82. doi:10.1037/h0042860. PMID 14450947.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Jakobovits, L.A. and Lambert, W.E. "Semantic satiation in an addition task". Canadian Journal of Psychology. 1962 (16): 112–19.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Jakobovits, L.A. and Lambert, W.E. (1962). "Mediated satiation in verbal transfer". Journal of Experimental Psychology. 1962 (64): 346–51. doi:10.1037/h0044630. PMID 14450946.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Jakobovits, L.A. and Lambert, W.E. (1963). L. Arons and M.A. May (ed.). The effects of repetition in communication on meanings and attitudes. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. pp. 167–76Template:Inconsistent citations {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: postscript (link)
• Messer, S., Jakobovits, L.A., Kanungo, R., and Lambert, W.E. (1964). "Semantic satiation of words and numbers". British Journal of Psychology. 1964 (55): 155–63. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8295.1964.tb02715.x. PMID 14168480.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Jakobovits, L.A. and Lambert, W.E. "Stimulus-characteristics as determinants of semantic changes with repeated presentation". American Journal of Psychology. 1964 (77): 84–92.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Jakobovits, L.A. (1965). "Semantic satiation in concept formation". Psychological Reports. 1965 (17): 113–14. doi:10.2466/pr0.1965.17.1.113. PMID 5826453.
• Jakobovits, L.A. (1965). "Repetition of auditorily presented information". Psychological Reports. 1965 (17): 785–86. doi:10.2466/pr0.1965.17.3.785. PMID 5854255.
• Jakobovits, L.A. "Utilization of semantic satiation in stuttering: A theoretical analysis". Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders. 1966 (31): 105–114.
• Jakobovits, L.A. "Studies of fads: I. The 'Hit Parade.'". Psychological Reports. 1966 (18): 443–50.
• Jakobovits, L.A. "Semantic satiation and cognitive dynamics". Journal of Special Education. 1967 (2): 35–44.
• Jakobovits, L.A. and Hogenraad, Robert. "Some suggestive evidence on the operation of semantic generation and satiation in group discussions". Psychological Reports. 1967 (20): 1247–1250.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Jakobovits, L.A. (1967). "Words, words, words" (Document). Bombay: Manaktala & SonsTemplate:Inconsistent citations {{cite document}}: Unknown parameter |work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)
• Jakobovits, L.A. and Lambert, W.E. "A note on the measurement of semantic satiation". Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior. 1967 (6): 954–57.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Jakobovits, L.A. and Hogenraad, Robert. "Le phénomène de la satiation semantique". Bulletin de Psychologie. 1968 (22): 140–9.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• John Kounios, Sonja I. Kotz and Phillip J. Holcomb. "On the Locus of the Semantic Satiation Effect: Evidence from Event-Related Brain Potentials".