Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T04:07:58.477Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The verbal fluency task in the Greek population: Normative data, and clustering and switching strategies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2004

MARY H. KOSMIDIS ,
CHRISTINA H. VLAHOU ,
PANAGIOTA PANAGIOTAKI  and
GRIGORIOS KIOSSEOGLOU
MARY H. KOSMIDIS
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
CHRISTINA H. VLAHOU
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
PANAGIOTA PANAGIOTAKI
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
GRIGORIOS KIOSSEOGLOU
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We assessed 300 healthy adults in Greece on measures of semantic and phonemic verbal fluency in order to develop norms for the Greek population. We also evaluated the strategies that the participants used spontaneously in order to maximize word production, namely clustering and switching techniques. Our tasks comprised three semantic and three phonemic categories. Consistent with previous investigations of English-speaking samples, we found a contribution of demographic variables to word fluency. Specifically, level of education contributed to total word production, number of switches, and number of repetitive responses on both semantic and phonemic tasks, and the average cluster size only on the phonemic task. Age contributed to total word production and cluster size on the semantic task, and to number of switches on both semantic and phonemic tasks. Sex contributed only to total word production on the semantic task. In our sample, clustering and switching strategies were related to total word production on both tasks, suggesting that these strategies were used effectively. We present tables of normative data stratified by age and level of education. We have also included detailed guidelines for scoring clusters relevant to the Greek population. (JINS, 2004, 10, 164–172.)

Keywords

LanguageGreekVerbal fluencySemantic fluencyPhonemic fluencyNeuropsychological
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , March 2004 , pp. 164 - 172
Copyright
© 2004 The International Neuropsychological Society

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Acevedo, A., Loewenstein, D.A., Barker, W.W., Harwood, D.G., Luis, C., Bravo, M., Hurwitz, D.A., Aguero, H., Greenfield, L., & Duara, R. (2000). Category fluency test: Normative data for English- and Spanish-speaking elderly. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 6, 760–769.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ardila, A. (1995). Directions of research in cross-cultural neuropsychology. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 17, 143–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolla, K.I., Lindgren, K.N., Bonaccorsy, C., & Bleecker, M.L. (1990). Predictors of verbal fluency (FAS) in the healthy elderly. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 46, 623–628.3.0.CO;2-C>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bousefield, W.A. & Sedgewick, C.H.W. (1994). An analysis of restricted associative responses. Journal of General Psychology, 30, 149–165.Google Scholar
Cohen, M.J. & Stanczak, D.E. (2000). On the reliability, validity, and cognitive structure of the Thurstone Word Fluency Test. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 15, 267–279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crossley, M., D'Arcy, C., & Rawson, N.S.B. (1997). Letter and category fluency in community-dwelling Canadian seniors: A comparison of normal participants to those with dementia of the Alzheimer or vascular type. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 19, 52–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dick, M.B., Teng, E.L., Kempler, D., Davis, D.S., & Taussig, I.M. (2002). The Cross-Cultural Neuropsychological Test Battery (CCNB): Effects of age, education, ethnicity, and cognitive status on performance. In F.R. Ferraro (Ed.), Minority and cross-cultural aspects of neuropsychological assessment (pp. 17–41). Lisse, The Netherlands: Swets & Zeitlinger.
Gruenewald, P.J. & Lockhead, G.R. (1980). The free recall of category examples. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 6, 225–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, S., Smith, C.M., & Swash, M. (1988). Word fluency in patients with elderly dementia of Alzheimer type. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 27, 115–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kempler, D., Teng, E.L., Dick, M., Taussig, I.M., & Davis, D.S. (1998). The effects of age, education, and ethnicity on verbal fluency. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 4, 531–538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kosmidis, M.H., Folia, V., Vlahou, C.H., & Kiosseoglou, G. (2003). Semantic and phonological processing in illiteracy: A dichotomous or continuous process? Manuscript submitted for publication.
Lannoo, E. & Vingerhoets, G. (1997). Flemish normative data on common neuropsychological tests: Influence of age, education, and gender. Psychologica Belgica, 37, 141–155.Google Scholar
Monsch, A.U., Bondi, M.W., Butters, N., Salmon, D.P., Katzman, R., & Thal, L.J. (1992). Comparisons of the verbal fluency tasks in the detection of dementia of the Alzheimer type. Archives of Neurology, 49, 1253–1258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ratcliff, G., Ganguli, M., Chandra, V., Sharma, S., Belle, S., Seaberg, E., & Pandav, R. (1998). Effects of literacy and education on measures of word fluency. Brain and Language, 61, 115–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reis, A. & Castro-Caldas, A. (1997). Illiteracy: A cause for biased cognitive development. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 3, 444–450.Google Scholar
Robert, P.H., Lafont, V., Medecin, I., Berthet, L., Thauby, S., Baudu, C., & Darcourt, G., (1998). Clustering and switching strategies in verbal fluency tasks: Comparison between schizophrenics and healthy adults. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 4, 539–546.Google Scholar
Robert, P.H., Migneco, V., Marmod, D., Chaix-Medicin, I., Thauby, S., Benoit, M., Beau, C.H., & Darcourt, G. (1997). Verbal fluency in schizophrenia: The role of semantic clustering in category instance generation. European Psychiatry, 12, 124–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steenhuis, R.E. & Ostbye, T. (1995). Neuropsychological test performance of specific diagnostic groups in the Canadian Study of Health and Aging (CSHA). Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 17, 773–785.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tombaugh, T.N., Kozak, J., & Rees, L. (1999). Normative data stratified by age and education for two measures of verbal fluency: FAS and Animal Naming. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 14, 167–177.Google Scholar
Tomer, R. & Levin, B.E. (1993). Differential effects of aging on two verbal fluency tasks. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 76, 465–466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tröster, A., Fields, J.A., Testa, J.A., Paul, R.H., Blanco, C.R., Hames, K.A., Salmon, D.P, & Beatty, W.W. (1998). Cortical and subcortical influences on clustering and switching in the performance of verbal fluency tasks. Neuropsychologia, 36, 295–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Troyer, A.K. (2000). Normative data for clustering and switching on verbal fluency tasks. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 33, 370–378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Troyer, A.K., Moscovitch, M., & Winocur, G. (1997). Clustering and switching as two components of verbal fluency: Evidence from younger and older healthy adults. Neuropsychology, 11, 138–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Troyer, A.K., Moscovitch, M., Winocur, G., Alexander, M., & Stuss, D. (1998). Clustering and switching on verbal fluency: The effects of focal frontal and temporal-lobe lesions. Neuropsychologia, 36, 499–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wixted, J.T. & Rohrer, D. (1994). Analyzing the dynamics of free recall: An integrative review of the empirical literature. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1, 89–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar