Short test of semantic and phonological fluency: normal performance, validity and test-retest reliability

Area of Science:

• Neuropsychological assessment
• Cognitive psychology
• Psycholinguistics

Background:

• Verbal fluency tests (Semantic Fluency - SF, Phonological Fluency - PF) are standard neuropsychological tools.
• Limited normative data exists for UK samples, and the reliability and utility of short-form tasks are not well-established.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish normative data for SF and PF tasks in a UK sample.
• To investigate the impact of demographic factors (sex, age, education, IQ) on performance.
• To assess the test-retest reliability and utility of short-form verbal fluency tasks.

Main Methods:

• N=365 healthy participants completed SF (category: animals) and PF (letter: 'B') tasks.
• Percentile distributions were derived.
• Correlations with demographic variables and test-retest reliability were analyzed.
• Standard Error of Prediction (SEP) scores were calculated.

Main Results:

• No significant sex differences were found for SF or PF.
• A small negative correlation was observed between age and SF performance.
• Education and IQ showed modest positive correlations with both SF and PF.
• High correlations were found between short-form ('B' only) and longer PF tasks, and between 1-minute and 1.5-minute SF tasks, indicating strong reliability.

Conclusions:

• The study provides valuable UK normative data for SF and PF tasks.
• Short-form verbal fluency tasks demonstrate high test-retest reliability, supporting their use in clinical settings.
• Demographic factors have a limited but observable impact on performance, which should be considered in interpretation.