History Main / CentipedesDilemma

** Played straight when Patrick begins to ask Spongebob [[BeyondTheImpossible how a fire can be burning underwater.]]

* A mild version can be experienced by saying, reading, or thinking about a particular word too much. After a certain number of repetitions the word itself will lose all meaning to you. Your brain still consciously know it's a symbol for something, and know what that something is, but it feels like you're no longer using a word, but rather a really weird symbol that means the same thing. It is called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_satiation semantic satiation]]. Not to mention if you constantly repeat a word in your mind it becomes ad nauseam.

* Anyone who's learned to drive stick shift after ''first'' learning to drive on an automatic knows this trope intimately. All the complicated motions and checking of gauges and looking around that have become instinct fall apart with the addition of just one more thing to do. Nothing you internalized involved moving your left foot or paying attention to the [=RPMs=], and that's enough.
** You can even have this problem when going from a manual to an automatic. Putting your foot down to find the clutch and realizing it's not there can be very disconcerting.

** Not to mention a plenitude of other skills in the military, such as firing a weapon, or disassembling and reassembling equipment for maintenance or repair. Particularly important if you need to fire, disassemble, and reassemble your weapon in the midst of combat (such as when needing to clear a misfire from your weapon). Also note that you may need to do this, and any other important tasks, while also dealing with the mother of all fight-or-flight induced adrenaline surges.

* In ''{{Cerebus}}'', the titular aardvark tries to win a ball game using this trope, asking if he breathes in or out when tossing the ball. Cue to panel of his panicked partner contemplating it. Cut to panel showing said partner having won and saying, "I breathe out!"

* In German primary schools, the kids sometimes have to take grammar tests that involve conjugating verbs in their own language. Usually, they're able to get the verb forms right in their sleep, but when they're explicitly asked to compose, let's say, the second-person singular form after being taught how it's assembled from a verb stem and a suffix, some suddenly get it wrong even tough it's their own mother tongue. This Troper's survival strategy was to NOT try to memorize all the suffixes and rules, but to think of how she'd normally use that verb form in a sentence. It worked very well.

* Don't yawn.
** Okay.

-->'''Tiffany Aching''', [[{{Discworld}} I Shall Wear Midnight]]

* In Chapter 8 of ItTakesAVillage [[MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Spike]] finally figures out how to fly. He immediately makes it clear that ''no one'' is to ask him ''how'' he managed it, otherwise he might forget.

* If you think about a word too much, or repeat it many times, it starts to lose its meaning.

This is actually TruthInTelevision: when our brains learn new information, the process is learned in explicit memory, step-by-step. With practice, the process is transferred into implicit memory, meaning that we can recall an action with little conscious effort (like say, how to ride a bike), and a different part of the brain (the one responsible for muscle memory) is in charge of performing it. In situations with a high amount of pressure, such as a freethrow at a basketball game with four seconds left on the clock, the part of the brain that learned the skill in the first place wants to join the party again, and suddenly that move that you've done thousands of times and could probably do in your sleep becomes impossible, or at the very least extremely awkward to perform. This is why some athletes have a tendency to "choke" under pressure.

This is actually TruthInTelevision: when our brains learn new information, the process is learned explicitly, step-by-step. With practice, the process becomes implicit, meaning that a different part of the brain (the one responsible for muscle memory) is in charge of performing it. In situations with a high amount of pressure, such as a freethrow at a basketball game with four seconds left on the clock, the part of the brain that learned the skill in the first place wants to join the party again, and suddenly that move that you've done thousands of times and could probably do in your sleep becomes impossible, or at the very least extremely awkward to perform. This is why some athletes have a tendency to "choke" under pressure.

* A mild version can be experienced by saying, reading, or thinking about a particular word too much. After a certain number of repetitions the word itself will lose all meaning to you. Your brain still consciously know it's a symbol for something, and know what that something is, but it feels like you're no longer using a word, but rather a really weird symbol that means the same thing. It is called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_satiation semantic satiation]].

* This is common for anyone with a posthetic leg. They have to relearn how to walk and balance themselves as their body is used to doing it one way, and they are trying to metally go through the steps. One of the most common ways to get around it was to literally distract the patient in his therapy after they had proven able to do all the motions required so that they ''stop'' thinking about it. It still usually takes a few weeks.

* One of the ''[[{{ptitlebga5e439}} Callahan's Crosstime Saloon]]'' stories by SpiderRobinson is actually titled "The Centipede's Dilemma". In it, a character with a dangerous psychic ability is defeated and rendered powerless by using this technique.

* Harry Potter from [[HarryPotterAndTheMethodsOfRationality Methods of Rationality]] [[SubvertedTrope refused to share the secret]] behind the Patronus V.2, because no known wizard but him is able to reach the mental state necessary, and attempting it could [[BrownNote destroy their own ability to cast normal Patronuses]].

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* An episode of ''BeavisAndButthead'' had the boys forget how to urinate after thinking too hard about how to do it.
* Similair to the religious example above, a RunningGag in LooneyTunes is that a character can run (pun not intended) across water or even air just fine as long as somebody else doesn't point them at this fact.
** Lampshaded at least once in ''TinyToonAdventures'' - they can walk on air across a canyon as long as they don't look down.
* Happens to SpongebobSquarepants when he tries to explain how shoelaces are tied, and gets so mixed up that he entirely ''forgets how to do it.'' Fortunately, Gary provides a "how to tie your laces" recording to teach him the process all over again.
** Played straight when Patrick begins to ask Spongebob [[BeyondTheImpossible how a fire can be burning underwater.]]
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