WLS Codebooks

Note: Codebooks contain frequency data from the private data release. For some variables, these differ from the frequencies in the public release. Variables that differ between the public and private versions include "(not available on public release)" as part of the variable description, or a note indicating the difference between the public and private versions.

In Person: Cognition - Letter/Category Fluency

JCOGFLU  Cognition - Letter/Category Fluency Module           

OVERVIEW

The Cognition - Letter/Category Fluency Module, which was first administered
during the 2004 collection wave, tests cognitive ability by asking the
participant to name as many items that fit specified parameters as they can
within 60-second intervals. For the 2011 wave, participants were asked to
complete a maximum of two cognitive fluency tasks. The first of these, "Letter
Fluency," was administered to all participants and called for them to think of
and say as many words as they could that began with a particular, randomly
selected letter of the alphabet: "L" or "F". Prior to attempting the task,
participants were instructed not to use proper names (of people or places), say
the same word more than once, or to repeat variants of the same root word with
different endings. The second fluency task, "Category Fluency," was
administered in a similar fashion, although only a randomly selected 50%
sub-sample of participants was asked to complete it. Instead of being prompted
to say words that began with a certain letter of the alphabet, participants to
whom the Category Fluency task was administered were told to think of and say
as many things as they could that fit into a randomly selected category:
"animals" or "foods". As with the Letter Fluency task, participants were given
60 seconds to name as many categorically appropriate things as they could,
repetitions excluded. For both the Letter and Category Fluency tasks, the
number of acceptable responses given by the participant - as well as the
frequency with which they violated the stated rules - was tallied by 15-second
quartiles during our transcription process. 

If the participant refused to grant their interviewer permission to record the
entire CAPI interview at its beginning, they were asked for special permission
to record just the Cognition - Letter/Category Fluency Module. If such
permission was denied, the module was skipped in its entirety, as it was not
possible to properly transcribe and score the Letter and Category Fluency tasks
mid-interview. If the participant did consent to a special recording of the
module, only the Letter and Category Fluency tasks were recorded and the
recorder was turned off immediately afterward. 

While the 2011 Cognition - Letter/Category Fluency Module is highly comparable
to its 2004 predecessor, data users should be aware of the following: (1)
although the Letter Fluency task was only administered to a randomly selected
80% sub-sample in 2004, all participants were asked to complete it for the 2011
collection wave; (2) participants to whom the Letter Fluency task was
administered in 2004 were asked to complete it in 2011 using the same letter
("L" or "F") that was randomly assigned to them last wave; and (3) participants
to whom the Category Fluency task was administered in 2004 were asked to
complete it in 2011 using the same category ("animals" or "foods") that was
randomly assigned to them last wave. For information about the nature of the
Cognition - Letter/Category Fluency Module and our cognition data at prior
collection waves, please see Appendix G; cor860, which provides full decision
rules on what counts as a "scorable" answer in the context of the fluency
tasks, may be of particular interest. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: Inconsistencies discovered in the data for the 2004 Cognition -
Letter/Category Fluency Module have been corrected for the 2011 collection wave
but left unresolved in the 2004 data. Please see cor1022 in Appendix G for a
full account of the problems identified, as well as a solution that will bring
the 2004 analysis data into alignment with 2011 conventions.


BRIEF VARIABLE DESCRIPTIONS

    Variable ranges reference dataset/codebook order and are not necessarily 
    alphabetical.
    _____________________________________________________________________

    HFLUSTAT-HFLUREL:	    Module-Level Status Variables
    
    HI202REC-HI205REC:      Administrative and Error Codes for the 
    			    Letter Fluency Task 
    			    
    HI206RE:		    Version of Letter Fluency Task Administered:
    			    "L" or "F"

    HI210REC:               Total Letter Fluency Score as Sum of Scored
    			    Words Named
    		            
    HI211REC-HI216REC:      Counts of the Disqualified Words Said for 
    			    the Letter Fluency Task: Repeated Words,
    			    Same Root Word with Different Endings, 
    			    Caught Repetitions, Proper Nouns, and 
    			    Incorrect Responses

    HI220REC-HI247REC:      Letter Fluency Scores and Counts of the 
    			    Disqualified Words Said by 15-Second 
    			    Quartiles

    HI301RE:		    Random 50% Sub-Sampling Flag Dictating 
    			    Whether Category Fluency Task Administered 
    			    to Participant

    HI302REC-HI305REC:      Administrative and Error Codes for the 
    			    Category Fluency Task 

    HI306RE:		    Version of Category Fluency Task Administered:
    			    "Animals" or "Foods"

    HI310REC:               Total Category Fluency Score as Sum of Scored
    			    Words Named

    HI311REC-HI316REC:      Counts of the Disqualified Words Said for 
    			    the Category Fluency Task: Repeated Words,
    			    Caught Repetitions, Proper Nouns, and
    			    Incorrect Responses
    
    HI320REC-HI347REC:      Category Fluency Scores and Counts of the 
    			    Disqualified Words Said by 15-Second 
    			    Quartiles

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