Abstract
Absence of spreading activation in semantic tasks. Four experiments studied the prime set size effect (number of words related with another one measured by free association norms) in the processing of a test. The effect has been studied in both episodic tasks (cued recall) and semantic tasks (naming and lexical decision), looking for empirical evidence of the spreading of activation emanating from a node among the ones related whith it, as is proposed in spreading activation theories (Anderson, 1983). The results have shown the set size effect in the cued recall task but not in naming and lexical decision.
