Background:Performance on the verb fluency (VF) task may be influenced by administration
procedures and demographic factors of each population. Objective:The aim of this study was to verify whether the previous administration of
semantic and phonemic verbal fluency tasks can influence performance on VF; and to
analyze the correlation of VF performance with education, age and type of errors
in Brazilian healthy elderly. Methods:Sixty-two participants were subdivided into experimental (semantic and the
phonemic fluency tasks were administered before the VF) and control groups (VF
only). The total score and the types of errors on the VF task were determined.
Additional information was computed for the correlational analysis. Results:VF performance did not differ statistically between experimental and control
groups, but correlated positively with education and negatively with intrusions.
Conclusion:The lack of influence of other verbal fluency tasks on performance of the VF task
in elderly individuals allows the use of this order of administration. A strong
influence of educational level on VF task performance reinforces the need for
further studies in different populations.