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.)
