Attenuating demographic influences on verbal fluency and animal naming in a psychiatric sample

Measures of verbal fluency are common additions to neuropsychological evaluations. Due to the literature demonstrating the impact of demographic variables on these measures, corrective norms have recently been published. However, these norms have yet to be cross-validated. This study sought to cross-validate these norms in a racially diverse psychiatric sample. In addition, this study sought to evaluate the utility of Wide Range Achievement Test, 3rd Edition (WRAT3) Reading Recognition and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (WAIS-III) Vocabulary in attenuating the effect of demographic variables on these measures of verbal fluency. Results supported the utility of Gladsjo et al.'s (1999) norms. Further analysis revealed that both WRAT3 Reading Recognition and WAIS-III Vocabulary scores also attenuated the impact of demographic variables on these measures and accounted for more of the variance. Together, these results suggest that, although the demographically corrected norms adequately attenuate the impact of these variables, norms corrected for WRAT3 Reading Recognition or WAIS-III Vocabulary may account for more of the variance and therefore might be more appropriate and universally applicable.