Executive function and language as predictors of clustering and switching in semantic verbal fluency: does the semantic category matter?

Clustering and switching scores have been shown to provide information about strategic processes involved in semantic memory search and may contribute to the assessment of executive and language impairments in developmental disorders. However, differences across Semantic Verbal Fluency (SVF) categories in their cognitive and linguistic correlates highlight the importance of understanding how category characteristics may influence the interpretation of these scores. This study investigated the associations of linguistic abilities and executive functions with clustering and switching scores in the animals, fruits, and clothes categories.

A sample of 111 typically developing Brazilian children performed a one-minute SVF task. Participants also completed measures of working memory, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, higher-order executive functions, and linguistic measures (vocabulary, rapid automatized naming, and phonological awareness). Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the contribution of strategic scores to total word production and the independent associations of cognitive and linguistic measures with these scores.

The findings revealed differences in strategic scores across semantic categories. Clustering and switching predicted total word production across all categories, while mean cluster size was an additional predictor in clothes. The pattern of associations with executive and linguistic measures varied depending on the strategic score examined and the semantic category. Rapid automatized naming was significantly associated with clustering and switching in animals and fruits. Inhibitory control was additionally associated with clustering and switching in animals, although these associations did not remain independently significant in the regression models. In clothes, clustering was independently associated with phonological working memory and higher-order executive functions.

These findings are discussed in light of differences in animacy and in the breadth and organization of semantic networks across categories. The results underscore the importance of interpreting clustering and switching as complementary indices, as their cognitive and linguistic associations vary across SVF categories.