Effect of aging, education, reading and writing, semantic processing and depression symptoms on verbal fluency

Abstract

Verbal fl uency tasks are widely used in (clinical) neuropsychology to evaluate components of executive functioning and lexical-semantic processing (linguistic and semantic memory). Performance in those tasks may be affected by several variables, such as age, education and diseases. This study investigated whether aging, education, reading and writing frequency, performance in semantic judgment tasks and depression symptoms predict the performance in unconstrained, phonemic and semantic fl uency tasks. This study sample comprised 260 healthy adults aged 19 to 75 years old. The Pearson correlation coeffi cient and multiple regression models were used for data analysis. The variables under analysis were associated in different ways and had different levels of contribution according to the type of verbal fl uency task. Education had the greatest effect on verbal fl uency tasks. There was a greater effect of age on semantic fl uency than on phonemic tasks. The semantic judgment tasks predicted the verbal fl uency performance alone or in combination with other variables. These fi ndings corroborate the importance of education in cognition supporting the hypothesis of a cognitive reserve and confi rming the contribution of lexical-semantic processing to verbal fl uency. Keywords: Verbal fl uency, age, education, reading and writing habits, depression, semantic judgment. ResumoAs tarefas de fl uência verbal são amplamente empregadas na clínica neuropsicológica para avaliar os componentes de funções executivas e processamento léxico-semântico (linguagem e memória semântica). O desempenho nessas tarefas pode ser infl uenciado por diferentes variáveis, como idade, escolaridade e diferentes patologias. Este estudo investigou se a idade, escolaridade, frequência dos hábitos de leitura e escrita, o desempenho em tarefas de julgamento semântico e sintomas de depressão predizem os desempenhos em tarefas de fl uência verbal de critério livre, fonêmico-ortográfi co e semântico. Participaram desse estudo 260 adultos saudáveis entre 19 e 75 anos. Foi utilizada a correlação de Pearson e da análise de regressão múltipla. As variáveis analisadas foram associadas em diferentes modelos combinatórios e apresentaram distintos níveis de explicação de acordo com o tipo de fl uência verbal. A escolaridade foi a variáveis que melhor contribuiu para a explicação do desempenho nas tarefas de fl uência verbal, seguida pela idade, principalmente na tarefa fonêmico--ortográfi ca. O desempenho nas tarefas de julgamento semântico predisse a performance da fl uência verbal isoladamente ou em combinação com as demais variáveis. Esses resultados corroboram a importância da escolaridade na cognição, sustentando a hipótese da reserva cognitiva e confi rmam a implicação do processamento léxico-semântico na fl uência verbal. Palavras-chave: Fluência verbal, idade, escolaridade, leitura e escrita, depressão, julgamento semântico.

Methodological Criteria for Scoring Clustering and Switching in Verbal Fluency Tasks

“…Most Brazilian studies on VF include SVF tasks using the animal category (Araujo et al, 2011;Brucki, Malheiros, Okamoto, & Bertolucci, 1997;Brucki & Rocha, 2004;Caramelli, Carthery-Goulart, Porto, CharchatFichman, & Nitrini, 2007;Lopes et al, 2009;Silva, Yassuda, Guimarães, & Florindo, 2011). There is a small number of studies using fruits (Paula et al, 2010), body parts (Malloy-Diniz et al, 2007), and clothes (Fonseca, Parente, Côté, Ska, & Joanette, 2008;Moraes et al, 2014;Zimmermann, Parente, Joanette, & Fonseca, 2014). PVF tasks are also mentioned in national studies using the letters F, A, and S (Charchat-Fichman et al, 2011;Fonseca, Salles, & Parente, 2009;Machado et al, 2009), the letter P (Fonseca et al, 2008;Moraes et al, 2014;Zimmermann et al, 2014), and the letter M (Charchat-Fichman et al, 2011;Salles et al, in press).…”

“…There is a small number of studies using fruits (Paula et al, 2010), body parts (Malloy-Diniz et al, 2007), and clothes (Fonseca, Parente, Côté, Ska, & Joanette, 2008;Moraes et al, 2014;Zimmermann, Parente, Joanette, & Fonseca, 2014). PVF tasks are also mentioned in national studies using the letters F, A, and S (Charchat-Fichman et al, 2011;Fonseca, Salles, & Parente, 2009;Machado et al, 2009), the letter P (Fonseca et al, 2008;Moraes et al, 2014;Zimmermann et al, 2014), and the letter M (Charchat-Fichman et al, 2011;Salles et al, in press).…”

Estimating verbal fluency and naming ability from the test of premorbid functioning and demographic variables: Regression equations derived from a regional UK sample

“…Closely related to semantic fluency is the skill of naming ability, which relies on input from temporally based semantic networks and frontally based phonemic retrieval processes (Melrose et al ., ). Many authors describe the influence of age (e.g., Acevedo et al ., ; Barry, Bates, & Labouvie, ; Brickman et al ., ; Zimmermann, Parente, Joanette, & Fonseca, ) and education (e.g., Dursun, Robertson, Bird, Kutcher, & Kutcher, ; Moraes et al ., ; Ratcliff et al ., ; da Silva, Petersson, Faísca, Ingvar, & Reis, ) on verbal fluency performance.…”

Verbal fluency in relation to reading ability in students with and without dyslexia

“…Research on nonclinical groups show that verbal fluency is associated with factors such as age and level of education. Studies on healthy adults show that age has an effect on semantic fluency (Harrison et al, 2000; Moraes et al, 2013), but not action or letter fluency. However, level of education seems to play a significant role for performance on all three verbal fluency tasks, in particular action and letter fluency (Piatt, Fields, Paolo, & Tröster, 2004; Tallberg et al, 2008).…”