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The verbal fluency task in the Greek population: Normative data, and clustering and switching strategies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2004

MARY H. KOSMIDIS ,
CHRISTINA H. VLAHOU ,
PANAGIOTA PANAGIOTAKI  and
GRIGORIOS KIOSSEOGLOU
MARY H. KOSMIDIS
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
CHRISTINA H. VLAHOU
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
PANAGIOTA PANAGIOTAKI
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
GRIGORIOS KIOSSEOGLOU
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
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Abstract

We assessed 300 healthy adults in Greece on measures of semantic and phonemic verbal fluency in order to develop norms for the Greek population. We also evaluated the strategies that the participants used spontaneously in order to maximize word production, namely clustering and switching techniques. Our tasks comprised three semantic and three phonemic categories. Consistent with previous investigations of English-speaking samples, we found a contribution of demographic variables to word fluency. Specifically, level of education contributed to total word production, number of switches, and number of repetitive responses on both semantic and phonemic tasks, and the average cluster size only on the phonemic task. Age contributed to total word production and cluster size on the semantic task, and to number of switches on both semantic and phonemic tasks. Sex contributed only to total word production on the semantic task. In our sample, clustering and switching strategies were related to total word production on both tasks, suggesting that these strategies were used effectively. We present tables of normative data stratified by age and level of education. We have also included detailed guidelines for scoring clusters relevant to the Greek population. (JINS, 2004, 10, 164–172.)

Keywords

LanguageGreekVerbal fluencySemantic fluencyPhonemic fluencyNeuropsychological
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , March 2004 , pp. 164 - 172
Copyright
© 2004 The International Neuropsychological Society

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