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Distribution of nouns, verbs, and adjectives in phonemic fluency tasks.

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Title: Distribution of nouns, verbs, and adjectives in phonemic fluency tasks.
Authors: Economou, Alexandra (AUTHOR)
Source: Journal of Clinical & Experimental Neuropsychology. Jul2026, Vol. 48 Issue 5, p460-472. 13p.
Subjects: Nouns, Verbs, Grammatical categories, Adjectives, Age differences, Greek language, Verbal behavior testing
Abstract: Introduction: Verbal fluency tests have seen exponential growth in research and clinical practice in recent years, yet little is known about the distribution of grammatical categories spontaneously produced in phonemic fluency tasks. This study examined the distribution of nouns, verbs, and adjectives in phonemic fluency performance in a large Greek sample from the general population and explored their associations with age and education. Greek is particularly suited to this investigation because it has distinct word forms for nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Method: The phonemic fluency productions of 427 persons aged 16 to 87 years without known pathology, representing a wide range of educational backgrounds, were classified as nouns, verbs, adjectives, or other. Verb-noun and adjective-noun ratios were computed and compared to ratios derived from corpus data. Nonparametric analyses examined differences in the two ratios across age and education groups. Two-step cluster analyses were conducted to identify potential subgroups. Results: Across the entire sample, the verb-noun ratio (mean = 0.13) and adjective-noun ratio (mean = 0.12) were substantially lower than the ratios derived from corpus data (0.46 and 0.35 respectively, ps ≤.001). Age, education, and total number of words produced were significantly associated with both ratios but with small to medium effect sizes and large variability. Cluster analyses identified three subgroups for the verb-noun ratio but yielded two highly unequal subgroups for the adjective-noun ratio. Conclusion: The two ratios derived from fluency tasks are not directly comparable to those derived from corpora. The small-to-medium effect sizes of the variables studied and the subgroup patterns observed for the verb-noun ratio suggest that additional, as yet unexplored, factors contribute to grammatical category production in phonemic fluency. This study provides novel quantitative data regarding content word distributions in phonemic fluency and their demographic correlates. Future research should examine the potential clinical relevance of these ratios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Journal of Clinical & Experimental Neuropsychology is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Database: Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection
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Items – Name: Title
  Label: Title
  Group: Ti
  Data: Distribution of nouns, verbs, and adjectives in phonemic fluency tasks.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Economou%2C+Alexandra%22">Economou, Alexandra</searchLink> (AUTHOR)
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Journal+of+Clinical+%26+Experimental+Neuropsychology%22">Journal of Clinical & Experimental Neuropsychology</searchLink>. Jul2026, Vol. 48 Issue 5, p460-472. 13p.
– Name: Subject
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Nouns%22">Nouns</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Verbs%22">Verbs</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Grammatical+categories%22">Grammatical categories</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Adjectives%22">Adjectives</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Age+differences%22">Age differences</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Greek+language%22">Greek language</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Verbal+behavior+testing%22">Verbal behavior testing</searchLink>
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: Introduction: Verbal fluency tests have seen exponential growth in research and clinical practice in recent years, yet little is known about the distribution of grammatical categories spontaneously produced in phonemic fluency tasks. This study examined the distribution of nouns, verbs, and adjectives in phonemic fluency performance in a large Greek sample from the general population and explored their associations with age and education. Greek is particularly suited to this investigation because it has distinct word forms for nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Method: The phonemic fluency productions of 427 persons aged 16 to 87 years without known pathology, representing a wide range of educational backgrounds, were classified as nouns, verbs, adjectives, or other. Verb-noun and adjective-noun ratios were computed and compared to ratios derived from corpus data. Nonparametric analyses examined differences in the two ratios across age and education groups. Two-step cluster analyses were conducted to identify potential subgroups. Results: Across the entire sample, the verb-noun ratio (mean = 0.13) and adjective-noun ratio (mean = 0.12) were substantially lower than the ratios derived from corpus data (0.46 and 0.35 respectively, ps ≤.001). Age, education, and total number of words produced were significantly associated with both ratios but with small to medium effect sizes and large variability. Cluster analyses identified three subgroups for the verb-noun ratio but yielded two highly unequal subgroups for the adjective-noun ratio. Conclusion: The two ratios derived from fluency tasks are not directly comparable to those derived from corpora. The small-to-medium effect sizes of the variables studied and the subgroup patterns observed for the verb-noun ratio suggest that additional, as yet unexplored, factors contribute to grammatical category production in phonemic fluency. This study provides novel quantitative data regarding content word distributions in phonemic fluency and their demographic correlates. Future research should examine the potential clinical relevance of these ratios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
– Name: AbstractSuppliedCopyright
  Label:
  Group: Ab
  Data: <i>Copyright of Journal of Clinical & Experimental Neuropsychology is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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        Value: 10.1080/13803395.2026.2650424
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      – Code: eng
        Text: English
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        PageCount: 13
        StartPage: 460
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      – SubjectFull: Nouns
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Verbs
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Grammatical categories
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Adjectives
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      – SubjectFull: Age differences
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      – SubjectFull: Greek language
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      – SubjectFull: Verbal behavior testing
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      – TitleFull: Distribution of nouns, verbs, and adjectives in phonemic fluency tasks.
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              M: 07
              Text: Jul2026
              Type: published
              Y: 2026
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