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The relationship between ethnicity and word fluency
M T Johnson-Selfridge1, C Zalewski, J F Aboudarham
1Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, Palo Alto, CA 94301, USA.
Abstract:
The impact of ethnicity on word fluency measures, i.e., the FAS (Benton & Hamsher, 1976) and Animal Naming (AN) (Spreen & Strauss, 1991) tests, was explored. The groups included: White (n = 200), Black (n = 200), and Hispanic (n = 200) veterans. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed significant main effects for FAS and AN total scores both before and after covarying for income, education, and Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised Reading scores (p <.05). The largest unadjusted group mean difference approximated a medium effect size. No differences were found between FAS and AN standardized scores within each group. The findings are discussed as they relate to clinical practice and research.
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