Young adults outperform older adults on category fluency and processing speed, while older adults outperform young adults on premorbid IQ (NART)¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associationalr2·q3
Currency · newest study 2011 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2016: baselines and conditions change
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q3 i? The young group performed better than the older group on category fluency (animal naming) and on the processing speed composite, whereas the older group performed better than the young group on the National Adult Reading Test. → Safa A. Elgamal 2011
Evidence¶
Safa A. Elgamal 2011¶
Safa A. Elgamal, MBBCh, PhD, Eric A. Roy, PhD, Michael T. Sharratt, PhD. (2011). Age and Verbal Fluency: The Mediating Effect of Speed of Processing. Canadian Geriatrics Journal, Volume 14, Issue 3. https://doi.org/10.5770/cgj.v14i3.17
q3 · i? · associational · r2
Cross-sectional study of 130 healthy adults in three age groups (62 young, 30 middle-aged, 38 older) compared on neuropsychological measures using one-way ANOVA with Fisher's LSD post hoc tests. The abstract reports "category fluency as measured by animal category ( p < .001)" and processing speed differences favouring the young group, with older adults higher on the NART (p < .05).
"The young group performed better than the older group on category fluency as measured by animal category ( p < .001) and on processing speed composite score (p < .001). However, the older group performed better than the young group on the National Adult Reading Test ( p < .05)"
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Age correlates negatively with processing speed and category fluency and positively with IQ, but not with letter fluency — related
- Letter fluency shows no age-group difference in ANOVA, but older adults outperform young adults once processing speed and IQ are controlled — related
- Processing speed has a significant effect on both letter and category fluency in older adults, while IQ does not — related
- Category fluency declines with age and remains significantly impaired after controlling for processing speed and IQ — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
- Curve estimation shows linear decline in processing speed after age 30, quadratic trajectories for category fluency and IQ, and no age change in letter fluency — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
age-group-differences-category-fluency-speed-iq |
title |
Young adults outperform older adults on category fluency and processing speed, while older adults outperform young adults on premorbid IQ (NART) |
description |
Young adults outperform older adults on category fluency and processing speed, while older adults outperform young adults on premorbid IQ (NART) |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2011 |
recheck_by |
2016 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-17 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — safa-a-elgamal-2011 |
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