Semantic and affective verbal fluency: sex differences

Norms for 718 Persian Words in Emotional Dimensions, Animacy, and Familiarity

Research frequently uses words as stimuli to assess cognitive and psychological processes. However, various attributes of these words, such as their semantic and emotional aspects, could potentially confound study results if not properly controlled. This study aims to establish a reliable foundation for the semantic and emotional aspects of words for research in Persian. To this end, the present study provided norms for 718 Persian nouns in arousal, valence, familiarity, and animacy dimensions. The words were selected from a previous English dataset (Warriner et al. in Behav Res Methods 45(4):1191-1207, 2013), translated into Persian, and rated by a total of 463 native Persian-speaking participants. The ratings were obtained through an online questionnaire using a 9-point Likert scale for emotional dimensions (i.e., valence and arousal) and a 5-point Likert scale for semantic dimensions (i.e., familiarity and animacy). The reliability of the ratings was measured using the split-half method, and the result indicated a high consistency of ratings in all dimensions. To assess the relationship between the emotional and semantic dimensions, Pearson correlation coefficient was conducted. Gender differences were investigated through the Mann-Whitney U test, and significant differences were observed in all dimensions. These results are compared with findings from previous studies that were conducted in various languages.

Sex and gender correlates of sexually polymorphic cognition

BACKGROUND

Sexually polymorphic cognition (SPC) results from the interaction between biological (birth-assigned sex (BAS), sex hormones) and socio-cultural (gender identity, gender roles, sexual orientation) factors. The literature remains quite mixed regarding the magnitude of the effects of these variables. This project used a battery of classic cognitive tests designed to assess the influence of sex hormones on cognitive performance. At the same time, we aimed to assess the inter-related and respective effects that BAS, sex hormones, and gender-related factors have on SPC.

METHODS

We recruited 222 adults who completed eight cognitive tasks that assessed a variety of cognitive domains during a 150-min session. Subgroups were separated based on gender identity and sexual orientation and recruited as follows: cisgender heterosexual men (n = 46), cisgender non-heterosexual men (n = 36), cisgender heterosexual women (n = 36), cisgender non-heterosexual women (n = 38), gender diverse (n = 66). Saliva samples were collected before, during, and after the test to assess testosterone, estradiol, progesterone, cortisol, and dehydroepiandrosterone. Psychosocial variables were derived from self-report questionnaires.

RESULTS

Cognitive performance reflects sex and gender differences that are partially consistent with the literature. Interestingly, biological factors seem to better explain differences in male-typed cognitive tasks (i.e., spatial), while psychosocial factors seem to better explain differences in female-typed cognitive tasks (i.e., verbal).

CONCLUSION

Our results establish a better comprehension of SPC over and above the effects of BAS as a binary variable. We highlight the importance of treating sex as a biological factor and gender as a socio-cultural factor together since they collectively influence SPC.

Emotional and Non-Emotional Verbal Fluency in Native and Non-Native Speakers

OBJECTIVE

Native speakers frequently outperform non-native speakers on classic semantic verbal fluency tasks that target concrete non-emotional word retrieval. Much less is known about performance differences in retrieval of emotional words, which are abstract and crucial to social-emotional competence. This study compared native and non-native speakers' verbal productivity on emotional and non-emotional verbal fluency tasks.

METHOD

Forty-seven native and 37 non-native speakers of English participated in the study. Participants completed seven semantic verbal fluency tasks in English including classic semantic (e.g., "animals"), action (e.g., "things people do"), and emotional variants (e.g., "things that make people happy"). Subjective and objective measures of English proficiency, information about language usage, and cognitive measures (working memory) were obtained for each participant.

RESULTS

Verbal productivity for classic semantic, action, and emotional verbal fluency was lower for non-native speakers. Smaller language-specific vocabulary in non-native speakers did not moderate positivity biases in emotional verbal fluency. Subjective and objective language proficiency measures were less predictive of performance on the emotional than the non-emotional verbal fluency tasks.

CONCLUSION

Non-native speakers perform more poorly than native speakers on semantic verbal fluency in English for both emotional and non-emotional variants. Positivity biases are not moderated by language proficiency and are reliable features of emotional verbal fluency. Proficiency measures may be less effective in predicting generation of emotional than neutral words.

Gender Differences in Psychological Outcomes Following Surf Therapy Sessions among U.S. Service Members

Surf therapy is increasingly being used as an intervention to address various health problems, including psychological symptoms. Although recent research supports the positive impact of surf therapy on psychological outcomes, it is unclear whether these outcomes differ between men and women. This study compared changes in depression/anxiety (Patient Health Questionnaire-4), positive affect (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule), and pain (Numerical Pain Rating Scale) between U.S. service men and women (N = 74) during six weekly surf therapy sessions. Overall, participants reported decreased depression/anxiety (p < 0.001) and increased positive affect (p < 0.001), but no change in pain rating following each session (p = 0.141). Significant gender differences were found in the magnitude of changes in depression/anxiety (B = -1.01, p = 0.008) and positive affect (B = 4.53, p < 0.001) during surf sessions, despite no differences in pre-session scores on either outcome. Women showed greater improvements in depression/anxiety and positive affect compared with men-an important finding, given that surfing and military environments are often socially dominated by men. Future research is needed to replicate these findings in other samples, extend this research to other underrepresented populations, and identify barriers and facilitators of the sustainable implementation of surf therapy across populations.

The Emotional Verbal Fluency Task: A Close Examination of Verbal Productivity and Lexical-Semantic Properties

Purpose Emotional verbal fluency (Emo-VF) has the potential to expand neuropsychological assessment by providing information about affective memory retrieval. The usability of Emo-VF is limited, however, by significant variations in task administration and the lack of information about Emo-VF responses. This study investigated verbal productivity and the lexical-semantic properties of responses on positive and negative Emo-VF tasks. Comparing Emo-VF to non-Emo-VF tasks used regularly in neuropsychological assessment provided additional information about the basic characteristics of Emo-VF tasks. Method Twenty-five adult native speakers provided verbal responses to three Emo-VF ("happy," "sad," "negative emotions") and two non-Emo-VF categories ("animals," "things people do"). Verbal productivity was measured at the word and syllable levels. Multiple large-scale data corpora were used to estimate the lexical-semantic properties of the verbal responses. Results There was a robust positivity bias in verbal productivity within Emo-VF tasks. Emo-VF tasks tended to elicit longer words than "animals" and "things people do," which might impact the results of verbal productivity analyses, especially in comparisons with "things people do." Within Emo-VF tasks, negative Emo-VF elicited words from a wider range of valence than positive Emo-VF tasks. Similarities (e.g., word length and complexity) and differences (e.g., concreteness, age of acquisition) were found between positive and negative Emo-VF tasks. Conclusions The study provided information about the basic characteristics of Emo-VF tasks, which included evidence for a robust positivity bias, suggestions for analyses of verbal productivity (e.g., consideration of word length), and lexical-semantic properties associated with positive and negative Emo-VF tasks using corpora data.

Sex Differences in Verbal Fluency Among Young Adults

Verbal fluency tasks have been used as tools to measure various cognitive processes, such as executive functions, memory, and language. Sex differences in verbal fluency performance have been mostly investigated in population studies. Little of this research has focused on young adults. The goal of this study was to assess the impact of sex and task category on word production and verbal strategies (i.e., cluster size and switches) in young adults. The phonemic (letter “k”, letter “f”) and semantic (animals, fruits, sharp objects) fluency measures were used. Men and women were compared in terms of the number of produced words and the use of verbal strategies (number of switches and mean cluster size controlled for produced words). Results revealed subtle sex differences in verbal fluency in young adults. Men performed slightly better in semantic fluency, producing more words, while there were no sex differences in verbal strategies. There were also no sex differences in word production and verbal strategies in the phonemic fluency tasks. Furthermore, there were differences in the number of produced words, mean cluster sizes, and switches between semantic tasks as well as between phonemic tasks. These results can be interpreted in the context of potential differences in mental lexicon and social roles. Moreover, our results suggest that assessment of verbal strategies and overall word production may be important in the context of sex differences in verbal fluency among young adults as well as in neuropsychological diagnosis

Valence of Affective Verbal Fluency: fMRI Studies on Neural Organization of Emotional Concepts Joy and Fear

The present study was designed to examine the underlying brain mechanisms of positive and negative emotional verbal fluency. Three verbal fluency tasks (one non-emotional phonemic task, two emotional tasks: Joy and Fear) were used in this study. The results were analyzed for 35 healthy, Polish-speaking, right-handed adults aged 20-35. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (3T) was used to show brain activity during active participation in emotional verbal fluency tasks. The results reported for emotional fluency confirmed activation of different brain regions for the negative and positive emotional verbal fluency: in positive emotional verbal fluency Joy elicits greater activation in the frontal regions and the cingulate cortex, while in negative verbal fluency Fear is reflected in activation of parietal and temporal areas. The study provides an evidence for differentiation in neural mechanisms between positive and negative emotional verbal fluency and/or positive and negative retrieving processes, and differentiation in brain-related determinants of the emotional concepts organization.