Bear in mind: the role of personal background in semantic animal fluency – The SMART-MR study
ObjectivesSemantic fluency is a prominent neuropsychological task, typically administered within the category ‘animals’. With the increasing development of novel item-level metrics of semantic fluency, a concern around the validity of item-level analyses could be that personal background factors (e....
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-09-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1227053/full |
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| author | Annelot P. Smit Magdalena Beran Emma L. Twait Emma L. Twait Emma L. Twait Emma L. Twait Mirjam I. Geerlings Mirjam I. Geerlings Mirjam I. Geerlings Mirjam I. Geerlings Jet M. J. Vonk Jet M. J. Vonk |
| author_facet | Annelot P. Smit Magdalena Beran Emma L. Twait Emma L. Twait Emma L. Twait Emma L. Twait Mirjam I. Geerlings Mirjam I. Geerlings Mirjam I. Geerlings Mirjam I. Geerlings Jet M. J. Vonk Jet M. J. Vonk |
| author_sort | Annelot P. Smit |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ObjectivesSemantic fluency is a prominent neuropsychological task, typically administered within the category ‘animals’. With the increasing development of novel item-level metrics of semantic fluency, a concern around the validity of item-level analyses could be that personal background factors (e.g., hobbies like birdwatching or fishing) may disproportionally influence performance. We analyzed animal fluency performance at the item level and investigated the prevalence of individuals with abundant knowledge in specific classes of animals (e.g., birds, fish, insects) and the relationship of such knowledge with personal background factors and other cognitive tasks (episodic memory and executive functioning).MethodParticipants included 736 Dutch middle-aged to older adults from the SMART-MR cohort (mean age 58 ± 9.4 years, 18% women). Individuals were asked to name as many animals as possible for 2 min. Number of people with abundant animal class knowledge was calculated for the ability to recall a series of minimum ≥5 and up to ≥15 animals within a specific class with at most one interruption by an animal from another class. Subsequent analyses to investigate relationships of abundant class knowledge with sociodemographic characteristics (t-tests and chi-square tests) and cognitive performance (linear regressions) were performed for a cut-off of ≥10 animals within a specific class (90th percentile), with a sensitivity analysis for ≥7 animals (67th percentile).ResultsA total of 416 (56.2%) participants recalled a series of ≥5 animals from a specific class, 245 (33.3%) participants recalled ≥7, 78 (10.6%) participants recalled ≥10, and 8 (1.1%) participants recalled ≥15. Those who recalled a series of at least 10 animals within a class were older, more often men, and more often retired than those who did not. Moreover, they had a higher total score on animal fluency, letter fluency (i.e., executive functioning), and episodic memory tasks compared to those who did not.DiscussionOur results suggest that the benefit of abundant animal class knowledge gained by personal background does not disproportionally influence animal fluency performance as individuals with such knowledge also performed better on other cognitive tasks unrelated to abundant knowledge of animal classes. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T22:37:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d86f0d770a164cb1a345088937d78808 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T22:37:19Z |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-d86f0d770a164cb1a345088937d788082023-09-22T12:57:46ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782023-09-011410.3389/fpsyg.2023.12270531227053Bear in mind: the role of personal background in semantic animal fluency – The SMART-MR studyAnnelot P. Smit0Magdalena Beran1Emma L. Twait2Emma L. Twait3Emma L. Twait4Emma L. Twait5Mirjam I. Geerlings6Mirjam I. Geerlings7Mirjam I. Geerlings8Mirjam I. Geerlings9Jet M. J. Vonk10Jet M. J. Vonk11Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht and Utrecht University, Utrecht, NetherlandsJulius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht and Utrecht University, Utrecht, NetherlandsJulius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht and Utrecht University, Utrecht, NetherlandsAmsterdam UMC, Department of General Practice, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, NetherlandsResearch Institute Amsterdam Public Health, Research Programme Aging and Later Life, and Research Programme Personalized Medicine, Amsterdam, NetherlandsResearch Institute Amsterdam Neuroscience, Research Programme Neurodegeneration, and Research Programme Mood, Anxiety, Psychosis, Stress, and Sleep, Amsterdam, NetherlandsJulius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht and Utrecht University, Utrecht, NetherlandsResearch Institute Amsterdam Public Health, Research Programme Aging and Later Life, and Research Programme Personalized Medicine, Amsterdam, NetherlandsResearch Institute Amsterdam Neuroscience, Research Programme Neurodegeneration, and Research Programme Mood, Anxiety, Psychosis, Stress, and Sleep, Amsterdam, NetherlandsAmsterdam UMC, Department of General Practice, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NetherlandsJulius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht and Utrecht University, Utrecht, NetherlandsDepartment of Neurology, Memory and Aging Center, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA, United StatesObjectivesSemantic fluency is a prominent neuropsychological task, typically administered within the category ‘animals’. With the increasing development of novel item-level metrics of semantic fluency, a concern around the validity of item-level analyses could be that personal background factors (e.g., hobbies like birdwatching or fishing) may disproportionally influence performance. We analyzed animal fluency performance at the item level and investigated the prevalence of individuals with abundant knowledge in specific classes of animals (e.g., birds, fish, insects) and the relationship of such knowledge with personal background factors and other cognitive tasks (episodic memory and executive functioning).MethodParticipants included 736 Dutch middle-aged to older adults from the SMART-MR cohort (mean age 58 ± 9.4 years, 18% women). Individuals were asked to name as many animals as possible for 2 min. Number of people with abundant animal class knowledge was calculated for the ability to recall a series of minimum ≥5 and up to ≥15 animals within a specific class with at most one interruption by an animal from another class. Subsequent analyses to investigate relationships of abundant class knowledge with sociodemographic characteristics (t-tests and chi-square tests) and cognitive performance (linear regressions) were performed for a cut-off of ≥10 animals within a specific class (90th percentile), with a sensitivity analysis for ≥7 animals (67th percentile).ResultsA total of 416 (56.2%) participants recalled a series of ≥5 animals from a specific class, 245 (33.3%) participants recalled ≥7, 78 (10.6%) participants recalled ≥10, and 8 (1.1%) participants recalled ≥15. Those who recalled a series of at least 10 animals within a class were older, more often men, and more often retired than those who did not. Moreover, they had a higher total score on animal fluency, letter fluency (i.e., executive functioning), and episodic memory tasks compared to those who did not.DiscussionOur results suggest that the benefit of abundant animal class knowledge gained by personal background does not disproportionally influence animal fluency performance as individuals with such knowledge also performed better on other cognitive tasks unrelated to abundant knowledge of animal classes.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1227053/fullcognitioncategory fluencyverbal fluencydemographicpersonal background |
| spellingShingle | Annelot P. Smit Magdalena Beran Emma L. Twait Emma L. Twait Emma L. Twait Emma L. Twait Mirjam I. Geerlings Mirjam I. Geerlings Mirjam I. Geerlings Mirjam I. Geerlings Jet M. J. Vonk Jet M. J. Vonk Bear in mind: the role of personal background in semantic animal fluency – The SMART-MR study Frontiers in Psychology cognition category fluency verbal fluency demographic personal background |
| title | Bear in mind: the role of personal background in semantic animal fluency – The SMART-MR study |
| title_full | Bear in mind: the role of personal background in semantic animal fluency – The SMART-MR study |
| title_fullStr | Bear in mind: the role of personal background in semantic animal fluency – The SMART-MR study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Bear in mind: the role of personal background in semantic animal fluency – The SMART-MR study |
| title_short | Bear in mind: the role of personal background in semantic animal fluency – The SMART-MR study |
| title_sort | bear in mind the role of personal background in semantic animal fluency the smart mr study |
| topic | cognition category fluency verbal fluency demographic personal background |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1227053/full |
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