When comprehension elicits incomprehension: Deterioration of semantic categorisation in the absence of stimulus repetition

AbstractRepetition improves retrieval from memory; however, under some circumstances, it can also impair performance. Separate literatures have investigated this phenomenon, including studies showing subjective loss of meaning following “semantic satiation”, slowed naming and categorisation when semantically-related items are repeated, and semantic “access deficits” in aphasia. Such effects have been variously explained in terms of habituation of repeatedly-accessed representations, increased interference from strongly activated competitors, and longer-term weight changes reflecting the suppression of non-targets on earlier trials (i.e., retrieval-induced forgetting). While studies of semantic satiation involve massed repetition of individual items, competition and weight changes at the conceptual level should elicit declining comprehension for non-repeated items: this pattern has been demonstrated for picture naming but effects in categorisation are less clear. We developed a paced serial semantic task (...