DETERIORATION IN THE PRODUCTION OF VERBAL AND NONVERBAL MATERIAL AS AFUNCTION OF TIME IS CONTINGENT UPON THE MEANINGFULNESS OF THE ITEMS

The performances of 100 university students were compared for their le vels of production oil fluency tests for verbal and nonverbal material that was manipulated to be meaningful or nonsense. For both the meani ng conditions there was a significant deterioration in performance as a function of time, while production of the nonsense items remained co nstant. The results are consistent with the notion that the obligation for the items on the Verbal Fluency Test to be meaningful may require that the subject draws on the available word store, resulting in dete rioration of performance as this word score is exhausted. (C) 1997 Nat ional Academy of Neuropsychology. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.