Word Fluency Test - Verbal

Technical Manual

Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Created: January 29, 2015

Last Modified: January 31, 2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC

Background

This script runs a simple Letter Fluency Test with phonetic categories (letters A, F, S) similar to the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT). This test collects verbal input combined with 'Spacebar' presses for each valid word (by Test Administrator).

Duration

7 minutes

Description

Participants are asked to name 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). Test Administrators should press the Spacebar for each valid word. Soundfiles are saved for each letter for additional analyses.

Procedure

3 blocks: one block per targetletter
each block has a timelimit of 2min (editable parameter)

Word Count-Estimate:
- the word counts in this script are based on the number of spacebar presses (by administrator) made

Stimuli

This script test letters A, F, S because of their frequency in English
Different letters can be substituted under EDITABLE CODE -> Editable Values

Instructions

provide by Millisecond - instructions can be edited under
EDITABLE CODE -> Editable Instructions

Summary Data

File Name: letterfluency_voicerecordings_summary*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
inquisit.version Inquisit version number
computer.platform Device platform: win | mac |ios | android
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")
wordCount1-
wordCount3 Estimates word count by counting spacebar presses

Raw Data

File Name: letterfluency_voicerecordings_raw*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
build Inquisit version number
computer.platform Device platform: win | mac |ios | android
date Date the session was run
time Time the session was run
subject, group, With the current subject/groupnumber
session Session number
blockCode Name of the current block
blockNum Number of the current block
trialCode Name of the current trial
trialNum Number of the current trial
stimulusItem The presented stimuli in order of trial presentation
response The participant's response (57 = spacebar press)
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
wordCount Estimates word count by counting spacebar presses

Parameters

The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.

NameDescriptionDefault
targetLetter1 Stores the first targetletter "A"
targetLetter2 Stores the second targetletter "F"
targetLetter3 Stores the third targetletter "S"
timeLimit Stores the number of ms that participants have to come up with the words 120000ms => 2min
warningDuration Stores the duration in ms of the warning signal to prepare participants to get ready for next round 1000ms