Chinese character fluency test: an investigation of psychometric properties

Verbal fluency test (VFT), one of the most commonly used tests to evaluate executive function (EF), can be subdivided into letter fluency (LF) and semantic fluency (SF). Although SF tasks have been established in Eastern societies, it is difficult to develop a LF task (Non-SF task) in Mandarin. This study thus aims to examine the psychometric properties of the Chang Gung University Orthographical Fluency Test (CGUOFT), a non-SF task with Chinese characters.

A total of 290 participants were recruited from the community. Thirty participants were retested for the test-retest reliability. Three tests of EFs were used for the criterion-related validity.

CGUOFT has fair internal consistency and good test-retest reliability. The concurrent validity of CGUOFT is also acceptable. An exploratory factor analysis showed a one-factor structure, and the CGUOFT scores significantly correlated with sex, age and educational level.

This study might be the first one considering the Chinese characters to establish a VFT. Based on good psychometric properties, it merits evaluations of the CGUOFT from clinical samples in future studies.