General Verbal Ability Research Articles

The ecological validity of picture SFON tasks

Research has identified that children differ in the extent to which they spontaneously focus on numerical aspects of the environment (Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity, SFON) and that this correlates with their mathematics achievement. It is assumed that the mechanism underpinning this relationship is that children who spontaneously focus on numerical features of their environment will experience more self-initiated practice with number concepts. We explored this mechanism by investigating whether 4- to 5-year-old children’s verbal SFON scores on a picture description task related to their spontaneous focusing on number while engaged in play activities with their parent. We found that the scores derived from a picture description task were strongly correlated with the scores derived from the play sessions, rₛ = .638, 95% CI [.433, .781], providing evidence for this mechanism. We further investigated the role that verbal abilities may play in children’s performance on the picture description task, finding that general verbal abilities were not associated with verbal SFON scores. These results contribute to our understanding of the role played by verbal SFON tendencies in explaining differences in numerical development, and demonstrate the ecological validity of SFON picture tasks.

Fluency generating emotion words correlates with verbal measures but not emotion regulation, alexithymia, or depressive symptoms.

How do you feel? To answer this question, one must first think of potential emotion words before choosing the best fit. However, we have little insight into how the ability to rapidly bring to mind emotion words-emotion fluency-relates to emotion functioning or general verbal abilities. In this study, we measured emotion fluency by counting how many emotion words participants could generate in 60 s. Participants (N = 151 in 2011-2012) also completed a behavioral measure of verbal fluency (i.e., how many words starting with "P" or "J" participants could produce in 60 s), a cognitive reappraisal emotion regulation task, and emotion functioning questionnaires. In preregistered analyses, we found that participants produced more negative emotion words than positive words and more positive words than neutral words in the emotion fluency task. As hypothesized, emotion fluency was positively related to verbal fluency, but contrary to hypotheses, emotion fluency was not related to self-reported or task-based emotion functioning (e.g., alexithymia, depression, and emotion regulation ability). As such, in community samples, emotion fluency may reflect general cognitive abilities rather than processes crucial to emotional well-being. While emotion fluency as measured here does not track indices of well-being, future research is needed to investigate potential contexts in which verbal fluency for emotion words may be key to emotion regulation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Swear Word Fluency, Verbal Fluency, Vocabulary, Personality, and Drug Involvement

Abstract. Swearing is stereotypically associated with socially undesirable traits and behaviors, including limited verbal ability, disagreeable personality, and alcohol use. We sought to demonstrate that, contrary to such stereotypes, swear word fluency (i.e., ability to generate swear words) does not arise from a lack of verbal skills. We also explored whether swear word fluency might serve as an index of personality traits related to drug use. Accordingly, we conducted a preregistered study in which 266 undergraduates at a US university ( Mage = 19.36; 66.9% self-identified as women and 49.6% as White) completed measures of swear word fluency, verbal fluency (i.e., overall ability to generate words), vocabulary, Big Five traits, sensation seeking, and drug use. We observed positive associations between swear word fluency and verbal fluency, vocabulary, Openness, and Extraversion, and a negative association with Agreeableness. Moreover, swear word fluency accounted for unique variance in self-reported drug use over and above that accounted for by personality and general verbal ability. Swear word fluency might serve as one of few tasks where higher scores predict more drug involvement, justifying further work linking this measure with other aspects of personality and drug use.

Cognitive, behavioral and psychological functioning of children and adults with conservatively managed metopic synostosis

ABSTRACT Children diagnosed with metopic synostosis (MS) commonly experience poor neuropsychological outcomes, with research suggesting that children whose MS is managed conservatively (without surgery) potentially having worse outcomes than their operated peers. However, studies of children whose MS was managed conservatively are scarce. This study therefore examined the cognitive, behavioral, and psychological functioning of children/adults with conservatively managed MS (N = 38) and compares their outcomes to individually matched healthy controls (N = 38) of the same age and sex (matched-pairs design) from the general community. Age-appropriate, validated assessments measuring general cognition, verbal and visuospatial ability, attention and working memory, executive functioning, behavior, depression, anxiety, and satisfaction with appearance were utilized. Group differences were estimated using linear regression for (a) the overall sample and (b) by broad developmental stages: 2&3 yrs; ≥6–≤17. Moderate to large negative effects (g = −0.38 to −1.30) were evident before controlling for socio-economic status (SES), with the MS group performing significantly worse on 8 out of the 10 cognitive domains (general cognition, visuospatial ability, working memory, information processing, executive functioning: semantic & initial letter verbal fluency, switching, inhibition+switching). However, only initial letter verbal fluency (g = −0.99) and switching (g = −1.19) remained significant after adjusting for SES. The MS group displayed more behavioral problems, although this was not significant. Depression, anxiety, and satisfaction with appearance did not differ between the groups. Regular monitoring of cognitive functioning, particularly executive functioning, should be undertaken for those with conservatively managed MS.

A brief review of the relationship of executive function assessment and violence

This review analyzes nine studies comparing violent or aggressive groups to nonviolent groups on tests of executive function (EF). The purpose is to determine if those committing violence, or scoring highly on assessments of impulsive aggression, demonstrate significant impairment in EF while controlling for variables such as age, education, head trauma, substance use, and intelligence. The reviewed studies tested a diverse selection of offenders, including murderers, domestic offenders, sexual offenders, perpetrators of assault, and batterers. The characteristic finding from the examined studies was that errors on Trail Making Test- Part B and various scores from the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test differentiated violent and nonviolent persons more consistently than other EF tests used. Violent offenders also performed significantly worse on tests of verbal fluency and general verbal ability compared to nonviolent individuals. Additionally, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test was able to differentiate between different types of violent offenders. These results held across the type of crime committed, as well as incarcerated individuals, and individuals who self-reported as being physically aggressive. • Purpose was to determine if those committing violence show impairment in executive function while controlling for variables • Participants in studies included murderers, domestic offenders, sexual offenders, perpetuators of assault, and batterers • Errors on Trails Making Test- Part B and various scores from Wisconsin Card Sorting Test differentiated violent from non-violent offenders • Violent offenders performed worse on verbal fluency and general verbal ability than non-violent offenders • Wisconsin Card Sorting Test differentiated between different types of violent offenders

Development of arithmetic fluency: A direct effect of reading fluency?

The present longitudinal study investigated the developmental trajectories of addition, subtraction, and multiplication fluency; their relationships to general cognitive functions; and potential interrelations between reading fluency and growth in arithmetic fluency for different operations. The central prediction was that measures of arithmetic fluency for different operations would be differentially related to reading fluency because of variations in the timing and format of arithmetic instruction. Panel data on children’s arithmetic fluency and reading fluency performance were collected twice per year in third, fourth, and fifth grades (N = 449). For each operation tested (addition, subtraction, and multiplication), a series of bivariate (reading/arithmetic) latent growth and autoregressive latent trajectory models were constructed. After controlling for background cognitive variables, significant short- and long-term relationships to reading fluency were observed only for multiplication fluency. Specifically, reading fluency in early third grade predicted both immediately subsequent multiplication fluency scores and the slope of growth in multiplication fluency across subsequent grade levels. Exploratory analyses of covariate effects showed that whole number line estimation accuracy was related to growth in multiplication and subtraction fluency, while general verbal ability had a unique relationship to subtraction fluency that was not observed for either addition or multiplication. Overall, results indicate that children’s level of reading fluency and differences among arithmetic operations should be considered both when conducting research and when making instructional decisions about how to build students’ arithmetic fluency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

Brain Tumors in NF1 Children: Influence on Neurocognitive and Behavioral Outcome

Neurofibromatosis type-1 (NF1) is a monogenic tumor-predisposition syndrome creating a wide variety of cognitive and behavioral abnormalities, such as decrease in cognitive functioning, deficits in visuospatial processing, attention, and social functioning. NF1 patients are at risk to develop neurofibromas and other tumors, such as optic pathway gliomas and other tumors of the central nervous system. Few studies have investigated the impact of an additional diagnosis of brain tumor on the cognitive outcome of children with NF1, showing unclear results and without controlling by the effect of surgery, radio- or chemotherapy. In the present mono-institutional study, we compared the behavioral and cognitive outcomes of 26 children with neurofibromatosis alone (NF1) with two age-matched groups of 26 children diagnosed with NF1 and untreated optic pathway glioma (NF1 + OPG) and 19 children with NF1 and untreated other central nervous system tumors (NF1 + CT). NF1 + CT and NF1 + OPG showed significantly impaired cognitive abilities compared to NF1 group, with weaknesses in visuo-spatial abilities, visual scanning and verbal working memory, while general verbal abilities are preserved. Moreover, NF1 + OPG patients present more frequent internalizing problems and increased oppositional-deviant behaviors. These results suggest that the co-diagnosis of a brain tumor in NF1 children may partially worsen the cognitive and emotional outcome.

Identifying atypical change at the individual level from childhood to adolescence.

Identifying change at the individual level is an important goal for researchers, educators, and clinicians. We present a set of statistical procedures for identifying individuals who depart from a normative change. Using Latent Change Scores models (LCS), we illustrate how the Individual Likelihood computed from a statistical model for change (IL) and from an alternative unrestricted model (ILsat) can be used to identify atypical trajectories in situations with several measurement occasions. Using LCS and linear regression, we also show how the observed and latent change residuals can be used to identify atypical individual change between 2 measurement occasions. We apply these methods to a measure of general verbal ability (from WISC-R), from a large sample of individuals assessed every 2 years from Grade 1 to 9. We demonstrate the efficiency of these techniques, illustrate their use to identify individual change in longitudinal data, and discuss potential applications in developmental research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

24.3 EIGHTEEN-YEAR COURSE OF COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING IN PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS: FINDINGS FROM THE SUFFOLK COUNTY MENTAL HEALTH LONGITUDINAL STUDY

BackgroundKnowledge about the long-term cognitive course in psychotic disorders is limited. In this 18-year follow-up of participants of the Suffolk County project we report on the longitudinal course of cognitive performance in individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, affective psychoses and other psychoses. We investigate (i) change in functioning in 6 cognitive domains from 2-years to 20-years follow-up after first admission; (ii) 20-year performance and age-related differences in cognitive performance in patients relative to a never psychotic comparison group; and (iii) key predictors of clinically meaningful cognitive decline in patients.MethodsData came from the Suffolk County Mental Health Project, a prospective study of first-admission patients. Cognitive tests were administered 2 years (n = 399; schizophrenia spectrum: 285, affective psychoses: 226, other psychoses: 117) and 20 years (n = 240; 115, 92, and 34, respectively) after first admission, with 195 individuals completing cognitive tests at both time points. A never psychotic comparison group (N=260) was assessed at year 20.ResultsIndividuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders showed lower cognitive functioning than those with affective and other psychoses. Over time, patients declined in cognitive performance on almost all tests (d = 0.24 (range 0.12- 0.44)) with comparable magnitude across diagnoses. Longer duration of untreated psychosis and low childhood IQ were significantly associated with clinically relevant decline (>0.5SD) in general verbal ability and processing speed, but there were no robust predictors of cognitive decline across tests. Cross-sectional comparisons of patients to controls showed increasing impairments with age for general verbal ability, verbal fluency, and executive functioning.DiscussionOur findings indicate that cognitive functioning in psychotic disorders continues to decline after the illness onset, that this decline is not specific to schizophrenia but present across psychotic disorders, and that, relative to never-psychotic individuals, impairments on some key-cognitive domains worsen with age. These results imply that cognitive treatment should not only include cognitive remediation but also prevention of age-related cognitive stagnation and/or decline.

Razvijenost i razumevanje metafore kod dece predškolskog uzrasta

Apart from being conditioned by cognitive development, the development, understanding and use of the metaphor influence not only linguistic development in terms of enriching and structuring vocabulary and semantics, but also the general verbal ability of every individual. The aim of our research was to examine the development and understanding of the ability for drawing comparisons and language metaphors in children of preschool age. We also tried to determine whether there were differences in this respect regarding the gender of the students. The research sample consisted of 81 children of age 6-7 from different preschool institutions in Belgrade. The development and understanding of metaphors were tested by applying the subtests 'Comparison and Metaphorical Transfer of the Lexical-Semantical Test' written by Z. Kašić. The obtained results indicate that pre­school children possess a developed ability for drawing comparisons. The results are also indicative of the fact that the metaphor exists in the language of preschool children, but it is not fully developed nor understood. The research also established that there were no differences relative to the gender in the level of adoption of comparisons and metaphors. Given the children's age and the fact that the un­derstanding of different events, actions and activities is directly linked to understanding metaphorical structures, the lower achievement of the preschool children can be attributed to a gradual develop­ment of the metaphorisation ability. Such findings were expected.

Normal-range verbal-declarative memory in schizophrenia.

Cognitive impairment is prevalent and related to functional outcome in schizophrenia, but a significant minority of the patient population overlaps with healthy controls on many performance measures, including declarative-verbal-memory tasks. In this study, we assessed the validity, clinical, and functional implications of normal-range (NR), verbal-declarative memory in schizophrenia. Performance normality was defined using normative data for 8 basic California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT-II; Delis, Kramer, Kaplan, & Ober, 2000) recall and recognition trials. Schizophrenia patients (n = 155) and healthy control participants (n = 74) were assessed for performance normality, defined as scores within 1 SD of the normative mean on all 8 trials, and assigned to normal- and below-NR memory groups. NR schizophrenia patients (n = 26) and control participants (n = 51) did not differ in general verbal ability, on a reading-based estimate of premorbid ability, across all 8 CVLT-II-score comparisons or in terms of intrusion and false-positive errors and auditory working memory. NR memory patients did not differ from memory-impaired patients (n = 129) in symptom severity, and both patient groups were significantly and similarly disabled in terms of functional status in the community. These results confirm a subpopulation of schizophrenia patients with normal, verbal-declarative-memory performance and no evidence of decline from higher premorbid ability levels. However, NR patients did not experience less severe psychopathology, nor did they show advantage in community adjustment relative to impaired patients. (PsycINFO Database Record

An assessment of WISC-IIIUK on children with HIV infection.

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Third Edition UK test was administered to groups of children between the ages of 6 and 12 years with vertically transmitted HIV infection (n = 70) and a control group who were not infected by the virus (n = 70). The study was conducted in India. The two groups were matched for general verbal abilities, age and gender. The children were assessed for Verbal IQ, Performance IQ and Full-Scale IQ. The Verbal Comprehension Index, Perceptual Organization Index and Freedom from Distractibility Index were also obtained. A three-factor analysis of variance disclosed that school-age children with vertically transmitted HIV infection notched below in the areas of Verbal IQ, Performance IQ, Full-Scale IQ, Verbal Comprehension Index, Perceptual Organization Index and Freedom from Distractibility Index when collated with normal uninfected cohorts. Findings are discussed in the light of both theoretical and clinical implications.

Medical Rhetoric in Training Pediatricians

Rhetoric studies can play a positive role in the formation of verbal and cogitative activity and communicative competence of the future pediatrician. The latest scientific researches evidenced that the success of a doctor's practice is related not only to his highly professional medical knowledge, but also to his ability to talk, persuade, and communicate. Rhetoric is the theory and practice of the effective verbal expression of a thought in terms of a public monologue and dialogue; Medical (private) rhetoric is aimed at the development of general and professional verbal, cogitative, and communicative abilities of the future doctor. Methodically competent combination of disciplines «Medical Rhetoric» and «Psychology and Pedagogy» into a single module can enhance educational outcomes in teaching students.

The effect of perceptual reasoning abilities on confrontation naming performance: An examination of three naming tests

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Confrontation naming tests are a common neuropsychological method of assessing language and a critical diagnostic tool in identifying certain neurodegenerative diseases; however, there is limited literature examining the visual–perceptual demands of these tasks. This study investigated the effect of perceptual reasoning abilities on three confrontation naming tests, the Boston Naming Test (BNT), Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (NAB) Naming Test, and Visual Naming Test (VNT) to elucidate the diverse cognitive functions underlying these tasks to assist with test selection procedures and increase diagnostic accuracy. Method: A mixed clinical sample of 121 veterans were administered the BNT, NAB, VNT, and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–4th Edition (WAIS–IV) Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI) and Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI) as part of a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation. Results: Multiple regression indicated that PRI accounted for 23%, 13%, and 15% of the variance in BNT, VNT, and NAB scores, respectively, but dropped out as a significant predictor once VCI was added. Follow-up bootstrap mediation analyses revealed that PRI had a significant indirect effect on naming performance after controlling education, primary language, and severity of cognitive impairment, as well as the mediating effect of general verbal abilities for the BNT (B = 0.13; 95% confidence interval, CI [.07, .20]), VNT (B = 0.01; 95% CI [.002, .03]), and NAB (B = 0.03; 95% CI [.01, .06]). Conclusions: Findings revealed a complex relationship between perceptual reasoning abilities and confrontation naming that is mediated by general verbal abilities. However, when verbal abilities were statistically controlled, perceptual reasoning abilities were found to have a significant indirect effect on performance across all three confrontation naming measures with the largest effect noted with the BNT relative to the VNT and NAB Naming Test.

Neuropsychological and social cognitive function in young people at genetic risk of bipolar disorder.

Impairments in key neuropsychological domains (e.g. working memory, attention) and social cognitive deficits have been implicated as intermediate (endo) phenotypes for bipolar disorder (BD), and should therefore be evident in unaffected relatives. Neurocognitive and social cognitive ability was examined in 99 young people (age range 16-30 years) with a biological parent or sibling diagnosed with the disorder [thus deemed to be at risk (AR) of developing BD], compared with 78 healthy control (HC) subjects, and 52 people with a confirmed diagnosis of BD. Only verbal intelligence and affective response inhibition were significantly impaired in AR relative to HC participants; the BD participants showed significant deficits in attention tasks compared with HCs. Neither AR nor BD patients showed impairments in general intellectual ability, working memory, visuospatial or language ability, relative to HC participants. Analysis of BD-I and BD-II cases separately revealed deficits in attention and immediate memory in BD-I patients (only), relative to HCs. Only the BD (but not AR) participants showed impaired emotion recognition, relative to HCs. Selective cognitive deficits in the capacity to inhibit negative affective information, and general verbal ability may be intermediate markers of risk for BD; however, the extent and severity of impairment in this sample was less pronounced than has been reported in previous studies of older family members and BD cases. These findings highlight distinctions in the cognitive profiles of AR and BD participants, and provide limited support for progressive cognitive decline in association with illness development in BD.

Evaluation of verbal list learning as a predictor of psychosis.

We explored whether cognitive performance, and verbal learning in particular, predicts psychosis or psychiatric hospitalizations among unselected first-admission adolescent patients in general psychiatric care. Up to 152 adolescents aged 15-18 were interviewed with the SIPS, tested with a cognitive test battery in the beginning of their psychiatric treatment, and followed for a maximum of 9 years (median 4.5 years). The composite factors of processing speed, verbal performance and visuospatial performance did not predict psychosis (n = 7) or all-cause psychiatric hospitalizations (n = 26) beyond psychosis risk symptoms. However, those who developed psychosis performed worse on California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) compared to other adolescents. Lower scores of CVLT immediate recall predicted psychosis (P = .003, HR = 1.13 per CVLT point decrease). However, when general verbal ability was adjusted for, CVLT did not reach significance. Impaired verbal list learning may predict psychosis also among adolescent psychiatric patients not preselected for psychosis risk suspicion.

Deficits in visual short-term memory binding in children at risk of non-verbal learning disabilities

It has been hypothesized that learning disabled children meet short-term memory (STM) problems especially when they must bind different types of information, however the hypothesis has not been systematically tested. This study assessed visual STM for shapes and colors and the binding of shapes and colors, comparing a group of children (aged between 8 and 10 years) at risk of non-verbal learning disabilities (NLD) with a control group of children matched for general verbal abilities, age, gender, and socioeconomic level. Results revealed that groups did not differ in retention of either shapes or colors, but children at risk of NLD were poorer than controls in memory for shape-color bindings.

Landmark and route knowledge in children's spatial representation of a virtual environment.

This study investigates the development of landmark and route knowledge in complex wayfinding situations. It focuses on how children (aged 6, 8, and 10 years) and young adults (n = 79) indicate, recognize, and bind landmarks and directions in both verbal and visuo-spatial tasks after learning a virtual route. Performance in these tasks is also related to general verbal and visuo-spatial abilities as assessed by independent standardized tests (attention, working memory, perception of direction, production and comprehension of spatial terms, sentences and stories). The results first show that the quantity and quality of landmarks and directions produced and recognized by participants in both verbal and visuo-spatial tasks increased with age. In addition, an increase with age was observed in participants’ selection of decisional landmarks (i.e., landmarks associated with a change of direction), as well as in their capacity to bind landmarks and directions. Our results support the view that children first acquire landmark knowledge, then route knowledge, as shown by their late developing ability to bind knowledge of directions and landmarks. Overall, the quality of verbal and visuo-spatial information in participants’ spatial representations was found to vary mostly with their visuo-spatial abilities (attention and perception of directions) and not with their verbal abilities. Interestingly, however, when asked to recognize landmarks encountered during the route, participants show an increasing bias with age toward choosing a related landmark of the same category, regardless of its visual characteristics, i.e., they incorrectly choose the picture of another fountain. The discussion highlights the need for further studies to determine more precisely the role of verbal and visuo-spatial knowledge and the nature of how children learn to represent and memorize routes.

Mental vocabulary and markers of uncertainty in childhood and preadolescence

From middle childhood through adolescence, a growing awareness of interpretive activities in the construction of knowledge and belief occurs. Children progressively realize that cognitive activities are highly inferential and, consequently, uncertain. The present study moves from the hypothesis that a developmental progression of the understanding of the relative certainty of mental processes across late childhood and preadolescence is reflected in the use of mental terms. In particular, the present study analyses the production of two cognitive verbs (think and know) and of markers of uncertainty in an autobiographical narrative. The results confirm an increase in the use of think and of markers of uncertainty in children aged 8 to 12, suggesting a major change in children’s appreciation of subjectivity. The production of these mental terms was not associated with general verbal ability. Gender differences in their use were marginal and, when present, favored girls.

Self-estimated intellectual abilities: Stability, determinants, and gender differences

There is a long history of investigations of self-concept and self-estimates of intellectual abilities, yet there remains controversy regarding the underlying determinants of individual differences in self-estimated abilities, and there are also key questions regarding the patterns of gender differences in over/under estimations. In a four-year longitudinal study of high school students, we assessed self-estimated abilities (general intelligence, verbal, and math abilities), objective abilities, and a set of personality, interest, and related trait measures. Individual differences in self-estimated abilities were found to be relatively stable (average year-to-year test–retest reliabilities of .61 (g), .73 (Verbal) and .73 (Math)). Gender differences in self-estimated abilities largely paralleled objective ability differences, indicating an overall lack of gender differences in over/under estimations. Self-estimated abilities were well-predicted by objective abilities, and affective and conative traits. We address the implications of these results for the expression of self-concept constructs.