Swedish norms for word fluency tests: FAS, animals and verbs

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Psychology
• Linguistics

Background:

• Verbal fluency tests are crucial for assessing language impairment and cognitive decline.
• Establishing population-specific normative data is essential for accurate clinical interpretation.
• Previous research highlights the influence of demographic factors on cognitive test performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish normative data for the Swedish population on the FAS, Animals, and Verbs verbal fluency tests.
• To investigate the influence of education, intellectual level, age, and gender on verbal fluency performance in healthy adults.
• To provide guidelines for the administration and scoring of these tests in Swedish.

Main Methods:

• Recruited 165 healthy Swedish participants aged 16-89.
• Administered three verbal fluency tests: FAS, Animals, and Verbs.
• Assessed participants' intellectual functioning and collected demographic data (education, age, gender).

Main Results:

• Education level significantly influenced performance, particularly on the FAS and Verbs tests.
• Intellectual level showed a positive correlation with all verbal fluency measures.
• An age-gender interaction was observed: women aged 30-64 outperformed elderly men on FAS and Verbs.

Conclusions:

• Normative data for Swedish verbal fluency tests are now available.
• Education and intellectual functioning are key factors affecting verbal fluency.
• Age and gender-specific performance differences necessitate careful consideration in test interpretation.