Updated Australian category norms for neuropsychological and cognitive testing

TL;DR

This study updates Australian word category norms for cognitive testing, showing how language and culture influence these norms over time and across regions.

Contribution

The study provides the first updated Australian category norms since 1988, highlighting cultural and temporal variations in semantic fluency.

Findings

Norms for 'Precious Stones' were consistent over time and across regions.

Norms for 'Clothing' and 'Birds' showed significant changes over time and geography.

Updated norms improve the accuracy of neuropsychological assessments in Australia.

Abstract

Category norms are lists of words commonly generated as belonging to given semantic categories and are routinely used in cognitive and neuropsychological assessments. While English-language norms from the US and UK are regularly updated, the only Australian norms were published more than three decades ago in 1988. This study aimed to update Australian category norms to facilitate culturally appropriate cognitive and neuropsychological assessment.

Australian adults aged 18 to 85 years (N = 1011, M age = 52.67, SD = 18.89) completed a category production task. Participants were asked to list exemplars for 10 categories (Animal, Fruit, Sport, Clothing, Flower, Birds, Precious Stone, Furniture, Vehicle and Musical Instrument). Frequencies of words within each category were collated. Results were compared to 1988 Australian category norms and current UK category norms.

The members for each category occurring with a greater than 5% frequency are reported. Analyses showed that norms for Precious Stones were robust across time and region, while norms for Clothing and Birds were vulnerable to temporal and geographical shifts, respectively.

These findings provide updated, context-relevant norms to inform both clinical and research-related neuropsychological and cognitive testing in Australia. They also demonstrate temporal, cultural and geographical variations in category norms.

What is already known about this topic:
Category norms are lists of words belonging to a category. They are commonly used to create verbal learning tasks used in neuropsychological and cognitive assessments.As category norms reflect context-specific taxonomies of concepts and semantics, they are likely to differ by region and change over time.English norms derived from US and UK populations are regularly updated, but the most recent Australian category norms were published in 1988.

Category norms are lists of words belonging to a category. They are commonly used to create verbal learning tasks used in neuropsychological and cognitive assessments.

As category norms reflect context-specific taxonomies of concepts and semantics, they are likely to differ by region and change over time.

English norms derived from US and UK populations are regularly updated, but the most recent Australian category norms were published in 1988.

What this topic adds:
This study provides updated category norms for Australia which can be used to inform culturally specific psychology tasks for both clinical and research use.We used a large, representative sample to generate norms for 10 widely used categories and compared differences in semantic fluency across time and geographical region.The results reinforce the importance of using temporally relevant and culturally appropriate norms for psychological research.

This study provides updated category norms for Australia which can be used to inform culturally specific psychology tasks for both clinical and research use.

We used a large, representative sample to generate norms for 10 widely used categories and compared differences in semantic fluency across time and geographical region.

The results reinforce the importance of using temporally relevant and culturally appropriate norms for psychological research.