SENSITIVITY OF FIGURAL FLUENCY ON THE 5-POINT TEST TO FOCAL NEUROLOGICAL DYSFUNCTION

The Five-Point test, a measure of nonverbal figural fluency created by Regard, Strauss, and Knapp (1982), was administered to 258 patients ( 196 with neurologic disease and 62 with psychiatric disorders) to prov ide information on the sensitivity of the measure to frontal lobe dysf unction. Patients with frontal lobe dysfunction had a significantly hi gher percentage of perseverative errors than did nonfrontal neurologic and psychiatric patients on two versions of the Five-Point test. Furt hermore, patients with right frontal lobe dysfunction were more often correctly classified as defective on the basis of percent perseveratio n than patients with cerebral dysfunction in other brain regions. Thes e data provide evidence of the sensitivity of the Five-Point test to b rain damage generally and to frontal lobe dysfunction specifically.