The energies of low-lying singlet excited states of oligothiophenes, xT's (x = 3 to 8), and polythiophene are determined using femtosecond time-resolved near-infrared spectroscopy. The energies are linearly correlated with the reciprocal number of the thiophene rings for the oligomers 3T to 7T. The linear relation is not observed for 8T, indicating that the effective conjugation is formed over no more than seven rings in the excited states. Transient absorption spectra of polythiophene show that its thiophene chains are composed of planar segments with five or six thiophene rings.