Mechanism of word generation in Japanese letter fluency test

Abstract

The letter fluency test requires participants to generate as many words as they can in a limited time. Since the study indicated that strategy is not necessarily common for Japanese, present study was carried out to seek what kind of strategy Japanese employ in the letter fluency test and how strategy difference influence on the performances. In this study, three hundred thirty five subjects (age ranged 38-86 years old) took part in the Japanese letter fluency test. Participants who used the AIUEO order strategy (i.e. searching with in the order of Japanese syllabary) in switching generated significantly more words than participants who did not use that strategy. Mean performances of the AIUEO strategy user was 7.41 and that of no-user were 5.93. However, the switching time of both groups was not different. In the Japanese letter fluency test, Japanese preferred a retrieving strategy based on the AIUEO order to the other strategy such as random search. This is unique for Japanese compared to Alphabetic language user. Further, the study suggested that participants employ the AIUEO strategy was useful in switching to invite superior performances though previous studies have not pointed out.