Verbal and nonverbal fluency in patients with probable Alzheimer's disease.

Verbal fluency (semantic category naming and letter fluency) and nonverbal fluency (semantic category drawing and design fluency) were measured in mildly and moderately demented patients with probable dementia of the Alzheimer type (pDAT), and related to age at onset, disease duration, and disease severity. Group and individual patient analyses revealed impairments within verbal and nonverbal modalities that were most severe on semantic category fluency tasks. Detailed assessments of errors emphasized the role of compromised semantic memory in pDAT patients' impaired fluency, regardless of the modality of response. Fluency performance was related to dementia severity but not to age of onset or disease duration. It is concluded that deficits on measures of fluency in pDAT are due in large part to semantic memory impairments and that fluency may be useful for following disease progression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding verbal fluency in healthy aging, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease.

Objective: Verbal fluency measures are frequently part of batteries designed to assess executive function (EF), but are also used to assess semantic processing ability or word knowledge. The goal of the present study was to identify the cognitive components underlying fluency performance. Method: Healthy young and older adults, adults with Parkinson's disease, and adults with Alzheimer's disease performed letter, category, and action fluency tests. Performance was assessed in terms of number of items generated, clustering, and the time course of output. A series of neuropsychological assessments were also administered to index verbal ability, working memory, EF, and processing speed as correlates of fluency performance. Results: Findings indicated that regardless of the particular performance measure, young adults performed the best and adults with Alzheimer's disease performed most poorly, with healthy older adults and adults with Parkinson's disease performing at intermediate levels. The exception was the action fluency task, where adults with Parkinson's disease performed most poorly. The time course of fluency performance was characterized in terms of slope and intercept parameters and related to neuropsychological constructs. Speed of processing was found to be the best predictor of performance, rather than the efficiency of EF or semantic knowledge. Conclusions: Together, these findings demonstrate that the pattern of fluency performance looks generally the same regardless of how performance is measured. In addition, the primary role of processing speed in performance suggests that the use of fluency tasks as measures of EF or verbal ability warrants reexamination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexual-orientation-related differences in verbal fluency.

This study examined the performance of 60 heterosexual men, 60 gay men, 60 heterosexual women, and 60 lesbians on 3 tests of verbal fluency known to show gender differences: letter, category, and synonym fluency. Gay men and lesbians showed opposite-sex shifts in their profile of scores. For letter fluency, gay men outperformed all other groups; lesbians showed the lowest scores. For category fluency, gay men and heterosexual women jointly outperformed lesbians and heterosexual men. Finally, gay men outperformed all other groups on synonym fluency, whereas lesbians and heterosexual men performed similarly. A difference between heterosexual men and women was demonstrated on category and synonym fluency only. The findings implicate within-sex differences in the functioning of the prefrontal and temporal cortices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparison of category and letter fluency in Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's disease.

44 patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT), 44 elderly normal control (ENC) Ss demographically matched to the DAT group, 42 patients with Huntington's disease (HD), and 42 middle-aged normal control (MNC) Ss demographically matched to the HD group were administered letter and category fluency tasks. DAT patients showed an overproportional impairment on category than on letter fluency tasks, whereas HD patients were equally impaired. Analyses based on receiver operating characteristic curves revealed that category fluency correctly classified significantly more DAT and ENC Ss than did letter fluency, whereas the 2 fluency tasks did not differ in this respect for HD and MNC Ss. Results suggest that HD patients' failures on fluency tasks are caused by impaired initiation/retrieval capacities. In contrast, DAT patients' greater category than letter fluency deficits are primarily due to a breakdown in the structure of semantic knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ambiguity and verbal fluency in the TAT.

15 TAT cards, divided into low-, medium-. and high-ambiguity groups, were administered to 30 female nursing students. Stimulus ambiguity, defined in terms of variability of themes evoked by a given card, was found to be associated with hesitant and disrupted speech. These findings are explained in terms of the mediating role of uncertainty on speech. An adaptation effect was noted. The later, as opposed to the earlier stories, are associated with a longer reaction time, but fewer "ah's," less silence, and a quicker articulation rate. Finally, significant differences are noted between Ss' verbal fluency indexes, based on all 15 cards and thus independent of stimulus ambiguity, and verbal fluency indexes obtained in an interview situation. These differences are discussed in terms of monological vs. dialogical speech. (21 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Confusing memories for verbal and nonverbal communication.

In 2 experiments, with 150 undergraduates, emotion portrayed nonverbally in videotaped conversations impaired memory for the specific meaning of utterances. Ss produced more recognition (Exp I) or recall (Exp II) errors that were consistent with the emotional versions they had viewed than errors reflecting other emotions. In Exp I, this effect on recognition memory depended neither on the type of orienting task for nonverbal behaviors (attention to surface characteristics vs interpretations) nor on the length of the retention interval. In Exp II, the number of emotional errors in recall was slightly dependent on the reported moods of the viewers. Findings suggest that emotional interpretations of the nonverbal behaviors of others are associated in memory with the meaning of utterances. Results are discussed in reference to the effects of misleading information and to models of mood and memory. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Negativism in verbal and nonverbal responses of autistic children.

Studied negativism in 9 autistic, 9 behavior-disturbed, and 9 normal 5-12 yr olds in 3 different stimulus conditions (verbal requests for verbal responses, verbal requests for nonverbal responses, and nonverbal requests for nonverbal responses). Each condition included 2 tasks, which were requested 15 consecutive times. Ss demonstrated that they could perform the tasks before testing, and their responses were scored according to the similarity between the response and the request. Results demonstrate that the autistic and behavior-disturbed Ss responded similarly, except when requests required verbal responses, in which case the autistic Ss were much more negative. Results suggest applications to diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hand movement asymmetries during verbal and nonverbal tasks.

12 male and 12 female right-handed undergraduates were videotaped while they assembled blocks to perform a series of verbal and nonverbal tasks and a neutral (nonlateralized) task. Analysis of the videotapes revealed that the frequency of movement of one hand relative to the other changed systematically with the cognitive nature of the task, but only for movements playing a functional role in task performance. For the majority of such movements, verbal tasks elicited a greater proportion of right-hand use than did a neutral task, while nonverbal tasks elicited a greater proportion of left-hand use than did a neutral task. These shifts may have reflected the engagement of lateralized problem-solving systems within the 2 hemispheres. (French abstract) (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender-related dissociations of categorical fluency in normal subjects and in subjects with Alzheimer's disease.

Semantic fluency tasks, with the categories of birds and furniture as stimuli, were administered to normal subjects and patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Normal subjects showed a gender-related double dissociation consistent with the literature data because men were more fluent with the birds category and women with the furniture category. Also, patients with AD showed a Gender × Category interaction, but the double dissociation between birds and furniture was not present because of a prevalent impairment of the living category birds that was irrespective of gender. This pattern of impairment in patients with AD was independent from the disease stage. The authors conclude that (a) gender-related categorical effects cannot be considered as inborn, sex-related cognitive differences but as familiarity effects and (b) both lesion-related and familiarity-related factors must be taken into account to explain category-specific effects of patients with brain damage and patients with AD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of verbal fluency abilities and strategies in elementary-school-age children.

This study of two experiments designed to examine children's abilities and strategies for completing tests of verbal fluency. In Experiment 1, 64 third graders and 71 sixth graders completed four fluency tasks constructed for the study as well as several tests of other verbal abilities. Subjects received two sets of scores for the fluency tasks: a fluency score and scores for strategies expected to distinguish more verbally fluent children from less fluent children. The results demonstrated that the two sets of scores were positively correlated. In Experiment 2, 40 third graders and 38 sixth graders completed expanded versions of two of the fluency tasks used in Experiment 1. The results revealed grade and gender differences in strategy use as well as in level of task performance. In addition, the results indicated that the children's scores for one of the two strategies were strong predictors of their performance on the verbal fluency tasks. The effects of strategy selection and implementation, grade, and gender (as well as their combined influence on children's verbal fluency skills) are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related changes in verbal and nonverbal memory during early childhood.

In the present experiment, age-related changes in verbal and nonverbal memory performance by 2- to 4-year-old children were assessed. All children participated in the same unique event, and their memory of that event was assessed after a 24-hr delay. Overall, children's performance on each memory measure increased as a function of age. Furthermore, children's performance on both the verbal and nonverbal memory tests was related to their language ability; children with more advanced language skills reported more during the verbal interview and exhibited superior nonverbal memory relative to children with less advanced language skills. Finally, children's verbal recall of the event lagged behind both their nonverbal recall and their general verbal skill. It is hypothesized that despite large strides in language acquisition, preschool-age children continue to rely primarily on nonverbal representations of past events. The findings have important implications for the phenomenon of childhood amnesia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disparate letter and semantic category fluency deficits in autopsy-confirmed frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Patients with autopsy-confirmed frontotemporal dementia (FTD; n = 16) and Alzheimer's disease (AD; n = 32) were compared on first-letter and semantic category fluency tasks. Despite being matched on age, education, and dementia severity, FTD patients performed worse overall and showed similar impairment in letter and semantic category fluency, whereas AD patients showed greater impairment in semantic category than letter fluency. A measure of the disparity between letter and semantic category fluency (the semantic index) was effective in differentiating FTD from AD patients, and this disparity increased with increasing severity of dementia. These unique patterns of letter and semantic category fluency deficits may be indicative of differences in the relative contribution of frontal-lobe-mediated retrieval deficits and temporal-lobe-mediated semantic deficits in FTD and AD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teacher verbal and nonverbal behavioral expression toward selected pupils.

Using the context of pupil-initiated questions, selected verbal and nonverbal behaviors of teachers were investigated. 12 secondary school teachers in individualized classroom settings were asked to select 4 students subsequently labeled accepted, concerned, indifferent, and rejected. Teacher verbal behaviors were recorded with the Observation Schedule and Record 5V. Teacher–pupil interpersonal distance was recorded with the kinesthetic scale of the proxemic notation system (E. T. Hall, 1963). The 44 pupils selected completed the Describe Your School Inventory, a measure of pupil attitudes. Results show that school attitudes differed significantly between pupils labeled accepted, concerned, indifferent, and rejected. No significant differences were found in teacher behaviors toward these pupil groups. The usefulness of the situational context approach to the investigation of teacher behaviors is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive and neuropathologic correlates of Stroop Color-Word Test performance in Alzheimer's disease.

The Stroop Color-Word Test (SCWT; C. Golden, 1978) was examined in 59 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) and in 51 demographically comparable normal control (NC) participants. AD patients produced significantly larger Stroop interference effects than NC participants, and level of dementia severity significantly influenced SCWT performance. Principal -components analyses demonstrated a dissociation in the factor structure of the Stroop trials between NC participants and AD patients, suggesting that disruption of semantic knowledge and speeded verbal processing in AD may be a major contributor to impairment on the incongruent trial. Results of clinicopathologic correlations in an autopsy-confirmed AD subgroup further suggest the invocation of a broad network of integrated cortical regions and executive and language processes underlying successful SCWT performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Proxemic behavior as a function of inconsistent verbal and nonverbal messages.

An analog study with 40 male and 40 female undergraduates examined the effects of inconsistencies between a counselor's verbal and nonverbal behaviors on client proxemic behavior and ratings of counselor genuineness. Nonverbal behaviors included eye contact, trunk lean, body orientation, and leg positioning. Verbal content reflected either high or low levels of empathic understanding. Ss role-played a standard complaint with a confederate male counselor who communicated either contradictory or consistent verbal and nonverbal messages. Results indicate that inconsistent messages were associated with greater interpersonal distances, especially when the nonverbal messages were negative and the verbal messages were positive. Inconsistent messages also resulted in lower ratings of counselor genuineness. Results support the client-centered definition of congruence and further add to the evidence that spacing behavior is a direct reflection of one's interpersonal attraction. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Eliciting effects of verbal and nonverbal cues on projective test responses.

A verbal reinforcer and 2 nonverbal immediacy cues, eye contact and body lean, were manipulated by an E under far and close conditions of interpersonal distance in a projective testing situation with 80 undergraduates. It was hypothesized that the verbal cue ("good") would be positively reinforcing at both distances but that eye contact and body lean would be reinforcing only in the far condition. As hypothesized, significant increases in the dependent measure, the number of thematic responses, were found for the verbal cue at both interaction ranges. Support for the predicted conditional effect of eye contact was found on the last trial of the testing session. Body lean did not significantly affect the number of thematic responses at either the far or close interaction distance. Implications of the results for the further study of E cues in the projective test situation are discussed. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visual field differences in the recognition of verbal and nonverbal stimuli in man.

Tachistoscopically presented verbal and nonverbal stimuli to 16 normal right-handed 18-25 yr old males in the left and right visual fields. Verbal stimuli were 3-letter nonsense words. Nonverbal stimuli were 4 groups of random shapes in a 2 * 2 design in which the dimensions of verbal association value and complexity were independently varied to assess the influence of each as determinants of field differences. Results confirm earlier findings of a right-field superiority for verbal stimuli; however, a clear left-field superiority was found only for certain nonverbal stimuli (the high-complexity shapes). Association value produced a significant main effect but no differential field effect. Results are discussed in terms of the association between these field differences and reciprocal specialization of functions in the human cerebral hemispheres. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Semantic fluency in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's disease: Dissociation of storage and retrieval failures.

Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), Huntington's disease (HD), and Parkinson's disease (PD), and normal controls were compared on 2 versions of a semantic fluency task: a standard, uncued version and a version in which Ss were cued with subordinate categories. All patients were impaired relative to controls on the standard version. On the cued version, PD and HD patients improved significantly, but AD patients did not. AD patients' fluency, but not PD or HD patients', correlated significantly with confrontation naming ability. Impairment exhibited by PD and HD patients on standard semantic fluency tasks may be due to a retrieval deficit, whereas that of AD patients may be due to degradation of semantic memory stores. In addition, the pattern of performance exhibited by a nonaphasic patient with bilateral frontal lobe lesions suggests that the retrieval functions involved may depend on integrity of the prefrontal cortex. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)