Category Fluency Test: Normative data for English- and Spanish-speaking elderly

Abstract

Category fluency tasks are an important component of neuropsychological assessment, especially when evaluating for dementia syndromes. The growth in the number of Spanish-speaking elderly in the United States has increased the need for appropriate neuropsychological measures and normative data for this population. This study provides norms for English and Spanish speakers, over the age of 50, on 3 frequently used measures of category fluency: animals, vegetables, and fruits. In addition, it examines the impact of age, education, gender, language, and depressed mood on total fluency scores and on scores on each of these fluency measures. A sample of 702 cognitively intact elderly, 424 English speakers, and 278 Spanish speakers, participated in the study. Normative data are provided stratified by language, age, education, and gender. Results evidence that regardless of the primary language of the examinee, age, education, and gender are the strongest predictors of total category fluency scores, with gender being the best predictor of performance after adjusting for age and education. English and Spanish speakers obtained similar scores on animal and fruit fluency, but English speakers generated more vegetable exemplars than Spanish speakers. Results also indicate that different fluency measures are affected by various factors to different degrees. (JINS, 2000, 6, 760–769.)

Category fluency test: effects of age, gender and education on total scores, clustering and switching in Brazilian Portuguese-speaking subjects

“…Male subjects generated slightly more items than females in terms of total scores and intervals 2, 3, 4, and in terms of number of clusters, with significance only in generation between 15 and 30 s. Similar findings were reported by Kempler et al (21), in whose study men performed better than women. However, other studies have presented better performance by women in verbal fluency (14,20,23,28). Nevertheless, we failed to find a gender effect, as did our previous survey (24).…”

“…Many studies have revealed the influence of education on total scores (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23). In a previous survey of a Brazilian sample based on educational level, we determined cut-off scores of 9 for illiterates and subjects aged <8 years, and of 13 for persons with more than 8 years of schooling (24).…”

Verbal fluency tests: Normative data for the Latin American Spanish speaking adult population

“…Despite these limitations, limited studies have produced verbal fluency test norms in Spanish-speakers in the United States (Lucas et al, 1998;Stricks et al, 1998;Acevedo et al, 2000). The current study was the first to generate verbal fluency test norms across 11 countries in Latin America with nearly 4,000 participants.…”

“…Metanorms and individual norms studies have been completed for the phonological verbal fluency task using the cluster of letters F, A, and S, most commonly with English speaking adults in the United States and Canada (Acevedo et al, 2000;Gladsjo et al, 1999;Heaton, 2004;Loonstra, Tarlow, & Sellers, 2001;Mitrushina, 2005;Tombaugh, Kozak, & Rees, 1999). Additionally, norms have been established in the United States for phonological fluency using the letters C, F, and L (Ruff, Light, Parker, & Levin, 1996).…”

“…Semantic fluency norms have also been established for animals, vegetables, fruits, foods, and clothing, primarily from the United States and Canada (Gladsjo et al, 1999;Lucas et al, 1998;Mitrushina, 2005;Tombaugh et al, 1999). Only a select few collected norms for Spanish-speaking individuals, none of which were established in Latin America (Acevedo et al, 2000;Lucas et al, 1998;Stricks et al, 1998).…”