Which verbal fluency measure is most useful in demonstrating executive deficits after traumatic brain injury?
This paper examines switching and clustering in phonemic and semantic fluency tasks in individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Fluency tasks were administered to 30 Hebrew-speaking patients with TBI and 30 age-matched control participants. Significant group differences were found in total output, number of switches, and number of clusters on both tasks, but not in mean cluster size. Unlike prediction, z scores of the number of semantic switches and clusters were lower than the equivalent z scores on the phonemic test. Results highlight the executive component of semantic fluency and the importance of using this task when assessing cognitive functioning after TBI.
Department of Education and Psychology, The Open University, Ra'anana, Israel. gkave@012.net.il
Gitit
G
Kavé
Eyal
E
Heled
Eli
E
Vakil
Eugenia
E
Agranov
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D015600:Glasgow Coma Scale; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010700:Phonetics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012660:Semantics; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D014888:Wechsler Scales; D055815:Young Adult