VERBAL FLUENCY AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH INHIBITORY CONTROL IN CHILDREN GRADES 1-3

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 343-352
Author(s):  
Haris Memisevic ◽  
Sanja Soce ◽  
Lejla Kuralic Cisic ◽  
Inga Biscevic ◽  
Arnela Pasalic
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Developmental Trajectories ◽  
Semantic Fluency ◽  
Commission Errors ◽  
Reaction Test ◽  
Grade 3 ◽  
And Gender ◽  
School Period

Verbal fluency (VF) is a good indicator of a child’s academic prowess and later academic success. The goal of the present study was to examine the association between VF and inhibitory control. An additional goal was to examine the developmental trajectories of VF in relation to the grade and gender of the children. The sample for this study consisted of 210 children attending grades 1 to 3. Children’s performance was measured on two VF tasks: semantic fluency and phonological fluency. As a measure of inhibitory control we used a number of commission errors committed on the Multiple Choice Reaction Test. The results of this study indicate the lack of association between VF and inhibitory control. Children improved significantly in VF from grade 1 to grade 3. In relation to gender, girls outperformed boys on the test of phonological fluency but not on the test of semantic fluency. Given the importance of VF, these skills need to be tackled during the elementary school period and even earlier in preschool.

scholarly journals Performance of Children in Phonemic and Semantic Verbal Fluency Tasks

Psico-USF ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilmara de Lucena Leite ◽  
Izabel Augusta Hazin Pires ◽  
Laura Carolina Lemos Aragão ◽  
Artemis Paiva de Paula ◽  
Ediana Rossely de Oliveira Gomes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Explicit Memory ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
Semantic Fluency ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Northeast Region ◽  
Semantic Verbal Fluency ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Brazilian Northeast

Abstract This study investigated the performance of children from the Brazilian Northeast region, from 7 to 10 years in phonemic and semantic verbal fluency tasks. The participants were 102 subjects (62 girls and 40 boys) who performed three phonemic and three semantic fluency tasks. The results were submitted to correlational and variance analysis to investigate the influence of the variables age and gender on the subjects performance. There was no effect of gender on the results. Significant contrasts between age groups were found, and better performance was observed on phonemic tasks. Also, the performance in this task changed along development, in contrast to what happened with the semantic fluency. The findings seem to be in accordance to neurodevelopmental aspects, taken into account that explicit memory systems show more precocious maturational course, with earlier consolidation, in comparison to the executive functions and frontal lobes, which go on developing until adult ages.

Predictors of math achievement in the elementary school students grades 1-3

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haris Memisevic ◽  
Inga Biscevic ◽  
Arnela Pasalic
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Math Achievement ◽  
Math Skills ◽  
School Students ◽  
Visual Motor Integration ◽  
Math Scores ◽  
Visual Motor

Early math skills are a good predictor of later academic success. Finding what factors influence math performance might help educators create better and more efficient math programs. The goal of the present study was to assess the relationship of math achievement and verbal fluency, selective attention, visual-motor integration and inhibitory control. An additional goal was to assess the effect of gender and grade on math achievement. The sample for this study comprised 210 children from grades 1 to 3 (107 boys, 103 girls). Children were individually administered a math test and tests of various predictor measures. The significant predictors of math achievement were verbal fluency, selective attention, visual-motor integration, and inhibitory control. The proposed model explained around 70% of the variance in the math scores. There were no gender differences in the math scores. Given the fact that all the predictors used in this study are very susceptible to inclusion in instruction, their incorporation in an early age curriculum might significantly improve math skills at a later age.

Predictors of grit: A multilevel model examination of demographics and school experiences

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana Wanzer
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
School Culture ◽  
Multilevel Modeling ◽  
Predictive Validity ◽  
School Engagement ◽  
Multilevel Model ◽  
School Experiences ◽  
School Level ◽  
School Demographics ◽  
And Gender

Much of the research on grit has examined its predictive validity toward academic success; however, little research has treated grit as an outcome. This study uses multilevel modeling to examine how student-level demographics, school-level demographics, and students’ experiences in school predict grit. Results demonstrate that students’ experiences in school—including school engagement, relationships with adults and peers, and school culture—and self-reported GPA were most strongly related to grit, ethnicity was weakly related to grit, and gender and school demographics did not significantly relate to grit. Implications of this research on the potential malleability of grit are discussed.

scholarly journals EXPRESS: Trajectories of verbal fluency and executive functions in multilingual and monolingual children and adults: A cross-sectional study

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110267
Author(s):  
Roberto Filippi ◽  
Andrea Ceccolini ◽  
Peter Bright
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Fluid Intelligence ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Developmental Trajectories ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Lexical Retrieval ◽  
Cross Sectional

The development of verbal fluency is associated with the maturation of executive function skills, such as the ability to inhibit irrelevant information, shift between tasks and hold information in working memory. Some evidence suggests that multilinguistic upbringing may underpin disadvantages in verbal fluency and lexical retrieval, but can also afford executive function advantages beyond the language system including possible beneficial effects in older age. This study examined the relationship between verbal fluency and executive function in 324 individuals across the lifespan by assessing the developmental trajectories of English monolingual and multilingual children aged 7 to 15 years (N=154) and adults from 18 to 80 years old (N=170). The childhood data indicated patterns of improvement in verbal fluency and executive function skills as a function of age. Multilingual and monolingual children had comparable developmental trajectories in all linguistic and non-linguistic measures used in the study with the exception of planning, for which monolingual children showed a steeper improvement over the studied age range relative to multilingual children. For adults, monolinguals and multilingual participants had comparable performance on all measures with the exception of non-verbal inhibitory control and response times on the Tower of London task: monolinguals showed a steeper decline associated with age. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that verbal fluency was associated with working memory and fluid intelligence in monolingual participants but not in multilinguals. These findings raise the possibility that early acquisition of an additional language may impact on the development of the functional architecture serving high-level human cognition.

scholarly journals An Examination of Semantic Impairment in Amnestic MCI and AD: What Can We Learn From Verbal Fluency?

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-30
Author(s):  
M -J Chasles ◽  
A Tremblay ◽  
F Escudier ◽  
A Lajeunesse ◽  
S Benoit ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Memory Impairment ◽  
Neuropsychological Test ◽  
Semantic Fluency ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Amnestic Mci ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Subject Factor ◽  
Study Participants

Abstract Introduction The Verbal Fluency Test (VF) is commonly used in neuropsychology. Some studies have demonstrated a marked impairment of semantic VF compared to phonemic VF in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Since amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) is associated with increased risk of conversion to incident AD, it is relevant to examine whether a similar impairment is observed in this population. The objective of the present empirical study is to compare VF performance of aMCI patients to those of AD and elderly controls matched one-to-one for age and education. Method Ninety-six participants divided into three equal groups (N = 32: AD, aMCI and Controls) were included in this study. Participants in each group were, on average, 76 years of age and had 13 years of education. A repeated measures ANOVA with the Group (AD, aMCI, NC) as between-subject factor and the Fluency condition (“P” and “animals”) as within-subject factor was performed. T-tests and simple ANOVAs were also conducted to examine the interaction. Results There was a significant interaction between the groups and the verbal fluency condition. In AD, significantly fewer words were produced in both conditions. In contrast, participants with aMCI demonstrated a pattern similar to controls in the phonemic condition, but generated significantly fewer words in the semantic condition. Conclusion These results indicate a semantic memory impairment in aMCI revealed by a simple, commonly-used neuropsychological test. Future studies are needed to investigate if semantic fluency deficits can help predict future conversion to AD.

scholarly journals ADHD Endophenotypes in Caribbean Families

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (14) ◽  
pp. 2100-2114 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. L. Cervantes-Henríquez ◽  
J. E. Acosta-López ◽  
M. L. Martínez-Banfi ◽  
J. I. Vélez ◽  
E. Mejía-Segura ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Rate Sensitivity ◽  
Semantic Fluency ◽  
Classification Rate ◽  
Mental Control ◽  
Adhd Diagnosis ◽  
Caribbean Community ◽  
Neuropsychological Tasks ◽  
Caribbean Families ◽  
Sensitivity Specificity

Objective: The aim of this study is to contrast the genetics of neuropsychological tasks in individuals from nuclear families clustering ADHD in a Caribbean community. Method: We recruited and clinically characterized 408 individuals using an extensive battery of neuropsychological tasks. The genetic variance underpinning these tasks was estimated by heritability. A predictive framework for ADHD diagnosis was derived using these tasks. Results: We found that individuals with ADHD differed from controls in tasks of mental control, visuospatial ability, visuoverbal memory, phonological and verbal fluency, verbal and semantic fluency, cognitive flexibility, and cognitive ability. Among them, tasks of mental control, visuoverbal memory, phonological fluency, semantic verbal fluency, and intelligence had a significant heritability. A predictive model of ADHD diagnosis using these endophenotypes yields remarkable classification rate, sensitivity, specificity, and precision values (above 80%). Conclusion: We have dissected new cognitive endophenotypes in ADHD that can be suitable to assess the neurobiological and genetic basis of ADHD.

A-11 Investigating Gene–Gene Interactions by Cognitive Domain in Healthy Older Adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 1051-1051
Author(s):  
Kendra L Pizzonia ◽  
Andrew M Bryant ◽  
Leatha A Clark ◽  
Brian C Clark ◽  
Julie A Suhr
Keyword(s):  
Executive Functioning ◽  
Cognitive Functioning ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Gene Interactions ◽  
Trail Making Test ◽  
Semantic Fluency ◽  
Immediate Memory ◽  
Trail Making ◽  
Main Effects

Abstract Objective ApoE is a well-known gene carrying risk for Alzheimer’s disease and is associated with memory performance while the COMT gene is associated with executive functioning but is understudied. The present study investigated these gene interactions across cognitive domains. Method A larger study on gait and aging recruited 89 healthy community-dwelling adults over the age of 60. The primary analyses included 82 participants (67% female, mean age = 74.61, SD = 6.71). The analyses on executive functioning included 72 participants (65% female, mean age = 73.02, SD = 4.99) who completed all measures of interest. ApoE status was defined as presence/absence of Ɛ4. The rs4680 gene on the COMT allele was classified into Val/Met, Val/Val, and Met/Met genotypes. Biological sex was included as a binary term (i.e., male/female). Index variables and age corrected standard scores on the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status, verbal fluency, and Trail Making Test were included. Results Gene–gene interactions were found for overall cognitive functioning, immediate memory, and semantic fluency. There were main effects of sex for overall cognitive functioning, immediate memory, delayed memory, and semantic fluency. There were main effects for COMT for delayed memory and a main effect for both COMT and ApoE for visuospatial functioning, coding, and verbal fluency (all p’s < 0.05). There were no ApoE x COMT x Sex interactions and Trail Making Test B was not related to either gene or sex. Conclusion(s) Our findings suggest that both COMT and ApoE (and their interaction) influence cognition. Future research should investigate gene–gene interactions in larger samples with more comprehensive cognitive batteries.

Progress without Progressives? The Effects of Development on Women's Educational and Political Equality in Cultural Context, 1980 to 2010

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wade M. Cole ◽  
Claudia Geist
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Developmental Trajectories ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
Cultural Legacies ◽  
And Gender

Researchers often attribute diminishing gender inequality to economic development. When different aspects of gender inequality are examined, however, evidence points to both cross-national convergence as well as persistent (or even growing) heterogeneity in women's status. To make sense of this contradiction, we examine the extent to which culture moderates the relationship between economic development and gender inequality. We consider two dimensions of gender inequality, gender gaps in educational attainment and women's share of parliament, using data for 150 countries between 1980 and 2010. We find convergence toward greater equality in education, independently of economic development. But cross-cultural differences in female political representation persist or even grow as a function of economic development. Our results imply that economic development is not a direct pathway to greater gender equality. Rather, cultural legacies play an important role in shaping developmental trajectories.

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