Normative Data Stratified by Age and Education for Two Measures of Verbal Fluency: FAS and Animal Naming

TLDR

Normative data for phonemic (FAS) and categorical (Animal Naming) verbal fluency tests are presented to aid clinical interpretation. The study compiled normative scores for FAS and Animal Naming from 1,300 cognitively intact adults aged 16–95, stratified by three age groups (16–59, 60–79, 80–95) and three education levels (0–8, 9–12, 13–21 years). The results show a moderate correlation (r = .52) between FAS and Animal Naming, with FAS scores more influenced by education (18.6 % variance) than age (11 %), whereas Animal Naming scores are more affected by age (23.4 % variance) than education (13.6 %), and gender explains less than 1 % of variance.

Abstract

Normative data stratified by three levels of age (16-59, 60-79, and 80-95 years) and three levels of education (0-8, 9-12, and 13-21 years) are presented for phonemic verbal fluency (FAS) and categorical verbal fluency (Animal Naming). The normative sample, aged 16 to 95 years, consisted of 1,300 cognitively intact individuals who resided in the community. Years of education ranged from 0 to 21. The total number of words in 1 minute for each of the letters F, A, and S was correlated r =.52 with the number of animal names generated in 1 minute. Regression analyses showed that FAS was more sensitive to the effects of education (18.6% of the variance) than age (11.0% of the variance). The opposite relationship occurred for Animal Naming, where age accounted for 23.4% of the variance and education accounted only for 13.6%. Gender accounted for less than 1% of variance for FAS and Animal Naming. The clinical utility of these norms is discussed.