Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Jul 22:5:772.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00772. eCollection 2014.

What do verbal fluency tasks measure? Predictors of verbal fluency performance in older adults

Zeshu Shao  1 , Esther Janse  2 , Karina Visser  3 , Antje S Meyer  4
Affiliations

What do verbal fluency tasks measure? Predictors of verbal fluency performance in older adults

Zeshu Shao et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

This study examined the contributions of verbal ability and executive control to verbal fluency performance in older adults (n = 82). Verbal fluency was assessed in letter and category fluency tasks, and performance on these tasks was related to indicators of vocabulary size, lexical access speed, updating, and inhibition ability. In regression analyses the number of words produced in both fluency tasks was predicted by updating ability, and the speed of the first response was predicted by vocabulary size and, for category fluency only, lexical access speed. These results highlight the hybrid character of both fluency tasks, which may limit their usefulness for research and clinical purposes.

Keywords: inhibition; lexical access; updating ability; verbal fluency; vocabulary knowledge.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Abwender D. A., Swan J. G., Bowerman J. T., Connolly S. W. (2001). Qualitative analysis of verbal fluency output: review and comparison of several scoring methods. Assessment 8, 323–336 10.1177/107319110100800308 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Andreou G., Trott K. (2013). Verbal fluency in adults diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in childhood. Atten. Defic. Hyperact. Disord. 5, 343–351 10.1007/s12402-013-0112-z - DOI - PubMed
    1. Andringa S., Olsthoorn N., van Beuningen C., Schoonen R., Hulstijn J. (2012). Determinants of success in native and non-native listening comprehension: an individual differences approach. Lang. Learn. 62, 49–78 10.1111/j.1467-9922.2012.00706.x - DOI
    1. Ardila A. (2007). Normal aging increases cognitive heterogeneity: analysis of dispersion in WAIS-III scores across age. Arch. Clin. Neuropsychol. 22, 1003–1011 10.1016/j.acn.2007.08.004 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Baldo J. V., Shimamura A. (1998). Letter and category fluency in patients with frontal Lobe lesions. Neuropsychology 12, 259–267 10.1037/0894-4105.12.2.259 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources