SEMANTIC SATIATION IN HEALTHY-YOUNG AND OLDER ADULTS

In four experiments, semantic satiation was investigated in young and old adults. In the first two experiments, subjects were repeatedly pre sented a word (e.g., DOG) and then were presented a pair of words (e.g ., DOG-CAT or DOG-CHAIR) for a relatedness decision. The results of bo th experiments indicated that for the young adults, the relatedness ef fect (the difference between response latency on related and unrelated trials) decreased as a function of the number of times the satiated w ord was repeated, whereas for the older adults, there was no evidence of a decrease in the relatedness effect across repetitions of the sati ated word. In the third experiment, we investigated whether phonologic al codes are also susceptible to satiation. This experiment was simila r to the first two experiments with the exception that subjects made r hyme decisions (SAME-CLAIM VS. SAME-DIME) instead of semantic relatedn ess decisions. The results of this experiment did not yield any eviden ce of satiation for either the young adults or the older adults. The f inal experiment eliminated a simple decrease in attentional alertness or fatigue account of the semantic satiation effects round in the firs t two experiments. In this experiment, the repeated word was always un related to the pair of words presented for the relatedness decision. T he results of this experiment did not yield any evidence of semantic s atiation for either the young or the older adults. The discussion focu ses on the mechanisms underlying semantic satiation and the implicatio ns of age-related changes in these mechanisms.