system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why when we look at or say a particular word too much in a short amount of time do we think it “looks” or “sounds” wrong or has no meaning?
gpt
A cognitive phenomenon called semantic satiation causes this. Basically what we think happens is that in the brain, there are specific patterns of neutron activity linked to recognising the meanings of words. If you repeat the word over and over (or, interestingly, read the word over and over) the brain starts seeing the constant reaction of this same pattern over and over again as strange, and 'turns it down' so to speak. The brain is good at this, it doesn't want your cognitive processes to get 'hung up' on a certain pattern or stimulus like a computer with a frozen program, so it will naturally turn them down if they are repeated. The result is that with the pattern that recognises meaning temporarily suppressed you start hearing/reading the sound rather than the meaning.