Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T06:04:11.509Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Normative data for the Animal, Profession and Letter M Naming verbal fluency tests for Dutch speaking participants and the effects of age, education, and sex

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2006

WIM VAN DER ELST
Affiliation:
Maastricht Brain and Behavior Institute, European Graduate School of Neuroscience (EURON), Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
MARTIN P.J. VAN BOXTEL
Affiliation:
Maastricht Brain and Behavior Institute, European Graduate School of Neuroscience (EURON), Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
GERARD J.P. VAN BREUKELEN
Affiliation:
Department of Methodology and Statistics, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
JELLE JOLLES
Affiliation:
Maastricht Brain and Behavior Institute, European Graduate School of Neuroscience (EURON), Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Abstract

Previous research has indicated that performance on verbal fluency tests (VFTs) is influenced by language and/or culture. Consequently, normative VFT data for English-speaking people cannot be used for people for whom English is not their first language. The aim of the present study was to provide normative data for the Animal Naming, Profession Naming, and Letter M Naming (four-letter words beginning with the letter M) VFTs for Dutch-speaking populations, based on a large sample (N = 1856) of healthy men and women aged 24–81 years of different educational levels. The results showed that age affected the performance of all VFTs profoundly, but the age effect was not uniform: in the Profession and Letter M Naming VFTs, performance was stable in young adulthood but declined strongly after age 50. In contrast, in the Animal Naming VFT, performance appeared to decline linearly, starting early in life. Furthermore, males had higher scores than females on the Profession Naming VFT, and higher educated participants outperformed their lower educated counterparts on all three VFTs. Regression-based normative data were prepared for the 3 VFTs, and the advantages of using a regression-based normative approach instead of a traditional normative approach are discussed. (JINS, 2006, 12, 80–89.)

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2006 The International Neuropsychological Society

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aiken, L.S. & West, S.G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Ardila, A. (1995). Directions of research in cross-cultural neuropsychology. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 17, 143150.Google Scholar
Auriacombe, S., Fabrigoule, C., Lafont, S., Amieva, H., Jacqmin-Gadda, H., & Dartigues, J. (2001). Letter and category fluency in normal elderly participants: A population based study. Aging Neuropsychology and Cognition, 2, 98108.Google Scholar
Belsley, D.A., Kuh, E., & Welsch, R.E. (1980). Regression diagnostics: identifying influential data and sources of collinearity. New York: Wiley.
Benito-Cuadrado, M.M., Esteba-Castillo, S., Böhm, P., Cejundo-Bolívar, J., & Pena-Casanova, J. (2002). Semantic verbal fluency in animals: A normative and predictive study in a Spanish population. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 24, 11171122.Google Scholar
Bolla, K.I., Gray, S., Resnick, S.M., Galante, R., & Kawas, C. (1998). Category and letter fluency in highly educated older adults. Clinical Neuropsychologist, 12, 330338.Google Scholar
Crawford, J.R. & Howell, D.C. (1998). Comparing an individual's test score against norms derived from small samples. Clinical Neuropsychologist, 12, 482486.Google Scholar
Crawford, J.R., Obonsawin, M.C., & Bremner, M. (1993). Frontal lobe impairment in schizophrenia: Relationship to intellectual functioning. Psychological Medicine, 23, 787790.Google Scholar
Crossley, M., D'Arcy, C., & Rawson, N.S.B. (1997). Letter and category fluency in community-dwelling Canadian seniors: A comparison of normal participants to those with dementia of the Alzheimer or vascular type. Journal of Experimental and Clinical Neuropsychology, 19, 5262.Google Scholar
Crowe, S.F. (1998). Decrease in performance on the Verbal Fluency Test as a function of time: Evaluation in a young healthy sample. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 20, 391401.Google Scholar
De Bie, S.E. (1987). Standaardvragen 1987: Voorstellen voor uniformering van vraagstellingen naar achtergrondkenmerken en interviews [Standard questions 1987: Proposal for uniformization of questions regarding background variables and interviews]. Leiden, The Netherlands: Leiden University Press.
Flowers, K.A., Robertson, C., & Sheridan, M.R. (1995). Some characteristics of word fluency in Parkinson's disease. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 9, 3346.Google Scholar
Flynn, J.R. (1999). Searching for justice: The discovery of IQ gains over time. American Psychologist, 54, 520.Google Scholar
Folstein, M.F., Folstein, S.E., & McHugh, P.R. (1975). Mini-Mental State: A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12, 189198.Google Scholar
Fox, J. (1997). Applied regression analysis, linear models, and related methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Gleissner, U. & Elger, C. (2001). The hippocampal contribution to verbal fluency in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. Cortex, 37, 5563.Google Scholar
Harrison, J.E., Buxton, P., Husain, M., & Wise, R. (2000). Short test of semantic and phonological fluency: Normal performance, validity and test–retest reliability. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 39, 181191.Google Scholar
Hayslip, B. & Panek, P.E. (1989). Adult development and aging. New York: Harper & Row.
Henry, J.D. & Crawford, J.R. (2004). A meta-analytic review of verbal fluency performance following focal cortical lesions. Neuropsychology, 18, 284295.Google Scholar
Houx, P.J., Jolles, J., & Vreeling, F.W. (1993). Stroop Interference: Aging effects assessed with the Stroop Color-Word Test. Experimental Aging Research, 19, 209224.Google Scholar
Hurks, P.P.M., Vles, J.S.H., Hendriksen, J.G.M., Kalff, A.C., Feron, F.J.M., Kroes, M., Van Zeben, T.M.C., Steyaert, J., & Jolles, J. (2004). Semantic category fluency versus initial letter fluency over time as a measure of automatic and controlled processing in healthy school-aged children. Brain and Cognition, 55, 535544.Google Scholar
Ivnik, R.J., Malec, J.F., Smith, G.E., Tangalos, E.G., & Petersen, R.C. (1996). Neuropsychological tests' norms above age 55: COWAT, BNT, MAE Token, WRAT–R Reading, AMNART, Stroop, TMT, and JLO. Clinical Neuropsychologist, 10, 262278.Google Scholar
Jolles, J., Houx, P.J., Van Boxtel, M.P.J., & Ponds, R.W.H.M. (1995). Maastricht Aging Study: Determinants of cognitive aging. Maastricht, The Netherlands: Neuropsych Publishers.
Kempler, D., Teng, E.L., Dick, M., Taussig, M., Davis, D.S. (1998). The effects of age, education, and ethnicity on verbal fluency. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 4, 531538.Google Scholar
Kleinbaum, D.G., Kupper, L.L., Muller, K.E., & Nizam, A. (1998). Applied regression analysis and other multivariate methods (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
Kosmidis, M.H., Vlahou, C.H., Panagiotaki, P., & Kiosseoglou, G. (2004). The verbal fluency task in the Greek population: Normative data, and clustering and switching strategies. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 10, 164172.Google Scholar
Lee, D.Y., Lee, K.U., Lee, J.H., Kim, K.W., Jhoo, J.H., Kim, S.Y., Yoon, J.C., Woo, S.I., Ha, J., & Woo, J.I. (2004). A normative study of the CERAD neuropsychological assessment battery in Korean elderly. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 10, 7281.Google Scholar
Lezak, M.D., Howieson, D.B., & Loring, D.W. (2004). Neuropsychological assessment (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Loewenstein, D.A., Arguelles, T., Arguelles, S., & Linn-Fuentes, P. (1994). Potential cultural bias in the neuropsychological assessment of the older adult. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 16, 623629.Google Scholar
Loewenstein, D.A. & Rubert, M.P. (1992). The NINCDS-ADRDA neuropsychological criteria for the assessment of dementia: Limitations of current diagnostic guidelines. Behavior, Health and Aging, 2, 113121.Google Scholar
Lopez, S.R. & Taussig, F.M. (1991). Cognitive-intellectual functioning of Spanish-speaking impaired and nonimpaired elderly: Implications for culturally sensitive assessment. Psychological Assessment, 3, 448454.Google Scholar
Luteijn, F. & Van der Ploeg, F.A.E. (1983). Handleiding Groninger Intelligentietest (GIT) [Manual Groningen Intelligence Test]. Lisse, The Netherlands: Swets and Zeitlinger.
Marquardt, D.W. (1980). You should standardize the predictor variables in your regression models. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 75, 8791.Google Scholar
Mathuranath, P.S., George, A., Cherian, P.J., Alexander, A., Sarma, S.G., & Sarma, P.S. (2003). Effects of age, education and gender of verbal fluency. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 25, 10571064.Google Scholar
Mitrushina, M.N., Boon, K.B., & D'Elia, L.F. (1999). Handbook of normative data for neuropsychological assessment. New York: Oxford University Press.
Pachana, N.A., Boone, K.B., Miller, B.L., Cummings, J.L., & Berman, N. (1996). Comparison of neuropsychological functioning in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 2, 505510.Google Scholar
Raskin, S.A. & Rearick, E. (1996). Verbal fluency in individuals with mild traumatic brain injury. Neuropsychology, 10, 416422.Google Scholar
Ratcliff, G., Ganguli, M., Chandra, V., Sharma, S., Belle, S., Seaberg, E., & Pandav, R. (1998). Effects of literacy on measures of word fluency. Brain and Language, 61, 115122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruff, R.M., Light, R.H., Parker, S.B., & Levin, H.S. (1996). Benton Controlled Oral Word Association Test: Reliability and updated norms. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 11, 329338.Google Scholar
Ruff, R.M., Light, R.H., Parker, S.B., & Levin, H.S. (1997). The psychological construct of word fluency. Brain and Language, 57, 394405.Google Scholar
Salthouse, T.A. (1992). Why do adult age differences increase with task complexity? Developmental Psychology, 28, 905918.Google Scholar
Salthouse, T.A. (1996). The processing-speed theory of adult age differences in cognition. Psychological Review, 103, 403428.Google Scholar
Sergeant, J.A., Geurts, H., & Oosterlaan, J. (2002). How specific is a deficit of executive functioning for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder? Behavioural Brain Research, 130, 328.Google Scholar
Schmitt, J.A.J., Jorissen, B.L., Sobczak, S., Van Boxtel, M.P.J., Hogervorst, E., Deutz, N.E.P., & Riedel, W.J. (2000). Tryptophan depletion impairs memory consolidation but improves focused attention in healthy young volunteers. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 14, 2129.Google Scholar
Thurstone, L.L. (1938). Primary mental abilities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Tierney, M.C., Blach, S.E., Szalai, J.P., Snow, G., Fisher, R.H., Nadon, G., & Chui, H.C. (2001). Recognition memory and verbal fluency differentiate probable Alzheimer disease from subcortical ischemic vascular dementia. Archives of Neurology, 58, 16541659.Google Scholar
Tombaugh, T.N., Kozak, J., & Rees, L. (1999). Normative data stratified by age and education for two measures of verbal fluency: FAS and animal naming. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 14, 167177.Google Scholar
Tomer, R. & Levin, B.E. (1993). Differential effects of aging on two verbal fluency tasks. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 76, 465466.Google Scholar
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). (1976). International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED). Paris: Author.
Van Breukelen, G.J.P. & Vlaeyen, J.W.S., (in press). Norming clinical questionnaires with multiple regression: The pain cognition list. Psychological Assessment.
Van der Elst, W., Van Boxtel, M.P.J., Van Breukelen, G.P.J., & Jolles, J. (2005). Rey's verbal learning test: Normative data for 1855 healthy participants aged 24–81 years and the influence of sex, education, and model of presentation. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 11, 290302.Google Scholar
Videbech, P., Ravnkilde, B., Kristensen, S., Egander, A., Clemmensen, K., Rasmussen, N.A., Gjedde, A., & Rosenberg, R. (2003). The Danish PET/depression project: Poor verbal fluency performance despite normal prefrontal activation in patients with major depression. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 123, 4963.Google Scholar
Woods, S.P., Conover, E., Rippeth, J.D., Carey, C.L., Gonzalez, R., Marcotte, T.D., Heaton, R.K., & Grant, I. (2004). Qualitative aspects of verbal fluency in HIV-associated dementia: A deficit in rule-guided lexical-semantic search processes? Neuropsychologia, 42, 801809.Google Scholar
Zachary, R.A. & Gorsuch, R.L. (1985). Continuous norming: Implications for the WAIS–R. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 41, 8697.Google Scholar