Critical Note
A note on the measurement of semantic satiation

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This reply argues that the theoretical conception of semantic satiation, when measured by the semantic-differential technique, requires the use of the polarity-difference score based on initial (prerepetition) and final (postrepetition) comparisons. It is shown that the results presented by Yelen and Schulz (1963) in their article titled “Verbal satiation?” are based on an inappropriate scoring procedure, and lead to questionable conclusions. Since the existence of semantic satiation as a bona fide phenomenon, when “uncontaminated” by the semantic-differential technique, is never brought into question by these authors, the general evidence presented elsewhere (Lambert and Jakobovits, 1963) and reviewed by Amster (1964) is not given again here. However, an oscillation-of-attention hypothesis to account for the possible reduction of the satiation effect, not given elsewhere, is briefly presented.

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