Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Created: January 29, 2015
Last Modified: January 02, 2026 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
This script runs a simple Letter Fluency Test with phonetic categories (letters A, F, S) similar to the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT), as subset of the Multilingual Aphasia Examination.
This script collects written input.
Borkowski, J. G., Benton, A. L., & Spreen, O. (1967). "Word fluency and brain damage." Neuropsychologia, 5(2), 135-140.
Benton, A. L., Hamsher, K. deS., & Sivan, A. B. (1994). Multilingual Aphasia Examination (3rd ed.). Iowa City, IA: AJA Associates.
7 minutes
Participants are asked to type as many words as they can that begin with letters A, F, S (tested in blocked-design). They have 2 min for each letter (default).
3 blocks: one block per targetletter, order of letters randomly determined
each block has a timelimit of 2min (editable parameter)
Word Count-Estimate: Algorithm
Inquisit attempts to estimate the number of words for each letter by
- replacing all spaces up to 5 with a single space
- replacing all line breaks with a single space
- comparing the response string that contains only single spaces with a response strings that contains no
spaces at all
=> the estimated word count is the differences in string length plus 1
(e.g. "slug snail snake" vs. "slugsnailsnake" => 2 spaces + 1 = 3 words)
the algorithm only provides a rough estimate of the word count (and it does NOT
check whether the words are correct)
This script test letters A, F, S because of their frequency in English
Different letters can be substituted under EDITABLE CODE -> Editable Values
provide by Millisecond - instructions can be edited under
EDITABLE CODE -> Editable Instructions
File Name: letterfluency_summary*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| inquisit.version | Inquisit version number |
| computer.platform | Device platform: win | mac |ios | android |
| computer.touch | 0 = device has no touchscreen capabilities; 1 = device has touchscreen capabilities |
| computer.hasKeyboard | 0 = no external keyboard detected; 1 = external keyboard detected |
| startDate | Date the session was run |
| startTime | Time the session was run |
| subjectId | Participant ID |
| groupId | Group number |
| sessionId | Session number |
| elapsedTime | Session duration in ms |
| completed | 0 = Test was not completed 1 = Test was completed |
| estimateTotal | Sum of the estimated wordcounts for the 3 letters |
| targetLetter1 | Stores the first targetletter (default: "A") ('first' does not refer to order in which letters were run in) |
| targetLetter2 | Stores the second targetletter (default: "F") |
| targetLetter3 | Stores the third targetletter (default: "S") |
| estimateWordCount1-estimateWordCount3 | Estimates word count by comparing the length of the response with and without spaces for a given target letter |
File Name: letterfluency_raw*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| build | Inquisit version number |
| computer.platform | Device platform: win | mac |ios | android |
| computer.touch | 0 = device has no touchscreen capabilities; 1 = device has touchscreen capabilities |
| computer.hasKeyboard | 0 = no external keyboard detected; 1 = external keyboard detected |
| date | Date the session was run |
| time | Time the session was run |
| subject | Participant ID |
| group | Group number |
| session | Session number |
| blockcode | The name the current block (built-in Inquisit variable) |
| blocknum | The number of the current block (built-in Inquisit variable) |
| trialcode | The name of the currently recorded trial (built-in Inquisit variable) |
| trialnum | The number of the currently recorded trial (built-in Inquisit variable) trialnum is a built-in Inquisit variable; it counts all trials run even those that do not store data to the data file. |
| stimulusItem | The presented stimuli in order of trial presentation |
| response | The participant's response |
| latency | The response latency (in ms) |
| targetLetter | Stores the currently run targetletter |
| response | Stores the string response for a given targetletter |
| responseNoSpaces | Stores the string response for a given targetletter minus spaces |
| estimateWordCount | Estimates word count by comparing the length of the response with and without spaces |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
Design |
||
| targetLetter1 | Stores the first targetletter | "A" |
| targetLetter2 | Stores the second targetletter | "F" |
| targetLetter3 | Stores the third targetletter | "S" |
Timing Parameters |
||
| timeLimit | Stores the ms that participants have to come up with the words | 120000 |
| warningDuration | Stores the duration in ms of the warning signal to prepare participants to get ready for next round | 1000 |