Thurstone Word Fluency Test

{{Short description|Verbal fluency test}}

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| name = Thurstone Word Fluency Test

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| purpose = measure an individual's symbolic verbal fluency

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| synonyms = Chicago Word Fluency Test

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The Thurstone Word Fluency Test, also known as the Chicago Word Fluency Test (CWFT),{{cite book|author1=Kolb, Bryan |author2=Ian Q. Whishaw |title=Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology|location=New York|publisher=Worth|year=2008|isbn=978-0-7167-9586-5|page=443|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z0DThNQqdL4C&q=%22+Thurstone+Word+Fluency+Test%22&pg=PA443}} was developed by Louis Thurstone in 1938.{{cite journal|author1=Thurstone, LL |author2=Thurstone, TG |title=Primary Mental Abilities|journal=Science|location=Chicago|publisher=Univ. of Chicago Press|year=1938|volume=108|issue=2813|page=585|pmid=18933605|oclc=741860993}} This test became the first word fluency psychometrically measured test available to patients with brain damage.{{cite book|author1=Spreen, O. |author2=Risser, A. |year=2003|title=Assessment of aphasia|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780198032250|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k4zgc5ZiYzsC&q=thurstone+word+fluency&pg=PA89}} The test is a used to measure an individual's symbolic verbal fluency.{{cite journal|author=Pendleton, Mark G.|display-authors=etal|title=Diagnostic utility of the thurstone word fluency test in neuropsychological evaluations|journal=Journal of Clinical Neuropsychology|volume=4|issue=4|date=Dec 1982|pages=307–317|doi=10.1080/01688638208401139|pmid=7174838 }}{{cite journal|author=Leslie A. Burton, Debra Henninger & Jessica Hafetz|display-authors=etal|title=Gender Differences in Relations of Mental Rotation, Verbal Fluency, and SAT Scores to Finger Length Ratios as Hormonal Indexes|journal=Developmental Neuropsychology|volume=28|issue=1|year=2005|pages=493–505|doi=10.1207/s15326942dn2801_3|pmid=15992253|s2cid=26611942}}{{cite journal|author=S. L. Morrison-Stewart|display-authors=etal|title=Frontal and non-frontal lobe neuropsychological test performance and clinical symptomatology in schizophrenia|journal=Psychological Medicine|year=1992|volume=22|issue=2|pages=353–359|doi=10.1017/S0033291700030294|pmid=1615102|s2cid=36676656 }}

The test asks the subject to write as many words as possible beginning with the letter 'S' within a 5-minute limit, then as many words as possible beginning with letter

'C' within 4 minute limit. The total number of 'S' and 'C' words produced, minus the number of rule-breaking and perseverative responses, yield the patients' measure of verbal fluency.

The CWFT is used as one of the measures of brain's frontal lobe function. A related test, the COWAT (Controlled oral word association test), is part of the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Battery.