An influence of flanker in a category verification task on semantic satiation effect

This study examined semantic satiation in a flanked-category verification task. In the experiment, a target pair (FRUIT grape) was flanked by a distractor (i.e., flanker). There were three conditions; compatible condition in which flankers were semantically related to a target category word (FRUIT grape vs. apple), incompatible condition in which flankers were not related (FRUIT grape vs. coffee), baseline condition in which flankers were not presented. Seventy-three college students participated in the experiment and judged whether or not a instance word was related to a category word in the target pair. As a result, the semantic satiation effect was found regardless of flanker conditions. Additionally, the influence of flanker was not attenuated by prime repetitions. These results were elucidated in terms of decision criterion based on a semantic relatedness of prime and target instance words. A possibility indicated that the locus of decision criteria was shifted to a more careful one by prolonged prime repetitions. Finally, one explanation was discussed that an influence of satiation would be emerged from the process which suited semantic information to the context.