THE EFFECT OF PRESEMANTIC ACOUSTIC ADAPTATION ON SEMANTIC SATIATION

A decrement in the strength of the meaning of a word after rapid repet ition of that word has been called ''semantic satiation.'' This study asked whether this ''satiation'' might be produced by presemantic acou stic adaptation. Category words were utilized to prime the meaning of target words. The adaptation or ''satiation'' procedure, 30 rapid repe titions of the primes, was compared with a control condition of 3 repe titions. Participants listened to a series of prime words, each repeat ed by either the same speaker or many speakers, and then made semantic decisions on target words. When all the repetitions of a prime word a re produced by the same speaker, presemantic and semantic repetitions are confounded. When the repetitions are produced by different speaker s, presemantic acoustic repetition is abolished. A semantic decrement was detected with single-speaker, but not with multiple-speaker, repet itions of prime words. This study concluded that the semantic ''satiat ion'' observed here was a decrement in the activation level of semanti c representations induced by presemantic acoustic adaptation.