Aug 2026· Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory and Cognition· 0 citations
Medicine
Abstract
"List as many words as you can that start with M." The verbal fluency (VF) task is simple, yet even a typical university student only manages to produce about 15 words within 1 min, and there is substantial variability around this mean. The present study examined how linguistic and domain-general abilities contributed to VF performance in a large sample of healthy adult native speakers of Dutch (N = 571). We assessed the effects of linguistic knowledge, processing speed, short-term/working memory, and fluid intelligence on performance in the VF task. To examine whether linguistic and domain-general abilities contribute differently across VF task types, we included semantic trials (category-based generation: animals, food) and phonemic trials (letter-based generation: words beginning with S or M). We assessed the total number of correct words produced and the time to first response. Mixed-effects modeling showed that linguistic knowledge predicted the total number of correct responses in both semantic and phonemic VF. Short-term/working memory and processing speed were also significant predictors, but with smaller estimated effect sizes. Time to first response showed little effect of linguistic skills. We discuss how linguistic knowledge shapes the structure of the mental lexicon such that it affects both meaning-driven and form-driven access to lexical items. In addition, we provide updated norms for VF performance in Dutch and practical suggestions for using the task. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Adults acquire new words, including written and spoken forms, across the lifespan. Learning novel words is a dynamic process that progresses from initial familiarization through repeated exposure and offline processes toward lexicalization. These processes exhibit substantial interindividual variability. In this study, we leverage this variability to investigate how domain-specific linguistic and domain-general skills relate to performance across different phases of learning. Across three sessions, distributed over 3 weeks, 140 native German participants learned Mandarin Chinese spoken and written (Pinyin) word forms and were tested on the retention of the new knowledge. Additionally, participants completed nine tests assessing linguistic experience, processing speed, auditory and visual short-term memory, and nonverbal reasoning. Structural equation modeling, including latent growth curve analysis, revealed that the acquisition and linking of word forms was primarily shaped by domain-general skills. Critically, whereas processing speed predicted learning performance across all sessions, auditory short-term memory supported earlier but not later learning. An association between learning performance and linguistic experience was observed in exploratory network analyses with links to receptive vocabulary across all and spelling during earlier learning phases. These findings highlight that learning is conditioned by how fast and efficient incoming information is processed and that earlier learning is constrained by short-term memory capacity. More broadly, the engagement of cognitive resources changes over the course of learning, in step with a change from effortful and controlled processing at earlier to more efficient automatic processing at later phases. Learners may benefit from tailoring input to individual memory capacity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Johanna Funk, Florian Hintz· Journal of Experimental Psyc...· 0 citations
OBJECTIVE
The study examined verbal fluency performance using a 10-s paradigm in young and older adults, focusing on the role of cognitive reserve (CR) and emotion regulation.
METHOD
Thirty-eight young adults and 44 healthy older adults completed phonemic, semantic, and emotional fluency tasks, together with standardized assessments of vocabulary, working memory, CR, and emotion regulation. Linear mixed-effects models were used to examine task- and group-related effects, as well as the contribution of established cognitive predictors (vocabulary, backward digit span, and education). Additional models tested the role of CR and expressive suppression, the latter examined in relation to emotional fluency.
RESULTS
Performance differed across fluency types (ηp² = .39, i.e., semantic > phonemic > emotional) and between age groups (ηp² = .11), with young adults outperforming older adults. Vocabulary emerged as the strongest predictor (ηp² = .07), whereas working memory showed only a trend-level effect once lexical knowledge was controlled for (ηp² = .04). Education did not uniquely predict performance. Within emotional fluency, positive emotions elicited higher accuracy than negative emotions (ηp² = .03), and older adults were impaired for negative prompts. Expressive suppression negatively predicted emotional fluency accuracy independently of age (ηp² = .10). Within the older group, higher CR was associated with better overall fluency performance (ηp² = .11).
CONCLUSIONS
The 10-s fluency paradigm retains sensitivity to age-related differences while emphasizing rapid, automatic retrieval processes. The results underscore the protective role of CR and identify expressive suppression as a key affective modulator of emotional fluency. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Elisabetta Pisanu, B. Monachesi, S. Lucia et al.· Neuropsychology· 0 citations
Verbal fluency (VF) tasks are widely used to differentiate patients with cognitive impairment from healthy controls, but total word count produced during these tasks becomes unreliable when patients and controls exhibit comparable proficiency. This study examined, in detail, whether item-level and sequential properties of words produced during a VF task could reliably differentiate high-proficiency patients indistinguishable from controls by word count alone. Seventy-seven native Mandarin Chinese speakers (38 controls and 39 patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia) completed a semantic VF task. Participants were subdivided by proficiency into four groups: high-proficiency controls (HC), low-proficiency controls (LC), high-proficiency patients (HP), and low-proficiency patients (LP). The LC and HP subgroups were matched on semantic fluency scores and thus provided a key focus for the investigation. We examined item-level properties (word frequency, contextual diversity, semantic diversity, surprisal) and sequential properties (positional frequency variation) of the words produced. Significant group differences emerged across item-level psycholinguistic properties, though these were primarily driven by the LP group, with no reliable differentiation between LC and HP. Crucially, positional frequency variation distinguished LC from HP. LC participants began their lists with high-frequency words followed by a systematic decline, whereas HP patients produced words within a consistently narrow frequency band throughout. These findings indicate that item-level psycholinguistic properties alone are insufficient to differentiate HP from LC, whereas sequential word frequency variation provides a potential index of cognitive impairment, reflecting underlying differences in semantic retrieval and memory organisation. Future work with larger samples is needed to validate generalisability.
Y. Chang, Y. Wang, C. Chou et al.· medRxiv· 0 citations
The present study examines the role of Working Memory (WM), as a cognitive system of limited storage—processing resources, in complex sentence comprehension by typically developing children in both the verbal and non-verbal domain. In particular, the study compares non-verbal and verbal measures of WM in regard to their contribution to complex sentence comprehension.
Participants were 169 children aged 8 to 12 years, native speakers of Greek. A self-paced reading task was used to assess the comprehension of syntactically complex sentences. The sentences tested were object-relatives. Non-verbal short-term memory (nvSTM) and non-verbal working memory (nvWM) was measured by corsi blocks forward and corsi blocks backward, respectively. Forward digit span was used for the measurement of verbal short-term memory (vSTM) and backward digit span for the assessment of verbal working memory (vWM).
Results showed that the only significant predictor of children’s comprehension was backward digit span.
Findings suggest an important role of vWM in the comprehension of syntactically complex structures, lending support to the view that language comprehension is underpinned by a domain-specific cognitive system specialized to verbal processing.
Unknown authors· Europe's Journal of Psycholo...· 0 citations
INTRODUCTION
Deficits in semantic fluency are commonly observed across many types of dementia. However, deficits in semantic fluency are not always representative of a decline in language skills. Prior studies have suggested that the examination of the lexical properties of words produced on semantic fluency tasks may reveal disruptions in discrete cognitive processes that could assist in the detection of specific types of dementia.
METHOD
The mean word frequency, age of acquisition, and phonological neighborhood size of items generated on a semantic fluency task (fruits and vegetables) were compared between a sample of individuals with mild cognitive impairment or dementia (cognitively impaired, N = 65) and a sample of healthy older adults with normal cognition who were cognitively stable over an average of 5 years following initial assessment (cognitively stable, N = 72). Relations of these variables to scores on tests of language, executive functioning, and processing speed were also explored.
RESULTS
After controlling for age and education, the cognitively impaired group produced words of higher mean word frequency and lower mean age of acquisition than the cognitively stable group. Mean phonological neighborhood displayed the opposite pattern to expectations, with the cognitively stable group generating words with more phonological neighbors. Relations of evaluated word properties to tests of varied cognitive domains were explored in the overall sample, with mixed results.
CONCLUSIONS
Word properties of items generated on a semantic fluency task differed between cognitively impaired and cognitively stable groups. Future studies should investigate word properties of semantic fluency responses in the context of severity of cognitive impairment, thoroughly examine susceptibility to sociocultural factors, evaluate if findings are consistent across semantic fluency tasks, and explore ability to offer incremental validity for differential diagnosis and early detection over total scores alone.
Adrienne Jankowski, M. Holcomb, Julie A. Suhr· Journal of Clinical and Expe...· 0 citations
Although reading fluency plays a crucial role in reading comprehension, little is known about its early development. In this study, we first aimed to replicate Hudson et al.'s (2009, 2012) model of reading fluency development among beginning readers and, second, to expand it by incorporating components of articulation rate, sub-lexical orthographic knowledge, and reading accuracy, all of which are theoretically linked to reading fluency development. Three hundred and thirty English-speaking Grade 1 students (51.5% female; Mage = 74.82 months; SD = 3.60) were assessed at three time points (September [T1], January [T2], and May [T3]). At T1, we administered measures of rapid automatized naming (RAN), processing speed, phonemic blending fluency, and letter-sound fluency, at T2, measures of phonogram fluency and sub-lexical orthographic knowledge, and, finally, at T3, word reading fluency, nonword reading fluency, and text reading fluency. Using path analysis, we tested three models: a baseline model based on Hudson et al.'s model and two expanded models that included the additional measures. Our results replicated the core relations proposed by Hudson et al. and further demonstrated significant contributions from sub-lexical orthographic knowledge and reading accuracy to text reading fluency through word reading fluency. These findings are consistent with theoretical frameworks such as Ehri's (2014) orthographic mapping framework and the lexical quality hypothesis (Perfetti, 2007), showing the contributions but also limitations of the components of the reading fluency model.
Dalia Martinez, George K. Georgiou, Tomohiro Inoue et al.· Journal of Experimental Chil...· 0 citations
