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.

Phone: Cognition - Letter/Category Fluency

CCOGFLU - Cognition Fluency Module           


OVERVIEW

The Fluency section is a task which tests cognitive ability by asking the
respondent to name as many items that fit specified parameters as they can in
the 60 seconds they are given.  For Letter Fluency, the specified parameters
include instructions to think of as many words as they can beginning with
either an "L" or an "F", which are randomly selected. They are further
instructed that they cannot use proper names, repeat words, or use the same
words with different endings. Similar instructions are given for the Category
Fluency section.  In the Category Fluency section the respondent is asked to
think of as many things they can that either fit in the category of "foods" or
"animals," which are randomly selected.

If the respondent has refused the interviewer permission to record the
interview at the beginning of the interview, before the fluency task is
started, they ask special permission to record just the cognition section. If
this permission to record is further denied, the fluency section is skipped for
it can not be coded during the interview. If this special permission is
granted, only the fluency section is recorded, and the recording stops after
the fluency section is completed.

For full decision rules on what counts as a "scorable" answer, please see
cor860.

IMPORTANT NOTE: WLS staff have discovered inconsistencies in the 2005 cognitive
fluency data contained within this module. The identified issues were corrected
prior to releasing the 2011 rendition of the Cognition - Letter/Category Module
but have been left unresolved in the 2005 data. Please see cor1022 in Appendix
G for a full account of the problems identified, as well as a solution that
users can implement to bring the 2005 analysis data into alignment with 2011
conventions.


BRIEF VARIABLE DESCRIPTIONS

    Letter Fluency:         80% Sample
    
    Category Fluency:       50% Sample

    CI201REC - CI206REC:    Administrative and Error Codes -Letter Fluency

    CI210REC:               Total Letter Fluency Score

    CI211REC - CI216REC:    Raw Counting Variables - Letter Fluency

    C1220REC - CI247REC:    Scores and Raw Counting Variables by Quartile 
                            - Letter Fluency

    CI301REC - CI306REC:    Administrative and Error Codes - Category 
                            Fluency

    CI310REC:               Total Category Fluency Score

    CI311REC - CI316REC:    Raw Counting Variables - Category Fluency

    C1320REC - CI347REC:    Scores and Raw Counting Variables by Quartile 
                            - Category Fluency
                            
Note: See COR 963 in Appendix G for variable creation details

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