Abstract

We evaluated switching in human action/verb fluency to examine how it associates with other measures of executive functioning and with difficulties in the performance of IADLs in a HIV+ sample. Our sample was comprised of 29 HIV+ participants. All the participants completed measures of phonetic fluency (FAS) and semantic fluency [Animals, Human Actions (HA)] in addition to the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT), Stroop Color-Word Test (Stroop), Trail-making Test Part B (TMT B), Letter-Number Sequencing (LNS), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and the Boston Naming Task (BNT). The first regression model with phonetic and semantic switching produced R2 = .260, b = 5.957, 95% CI [1.889, 10.025], p< .01. The second model with phonetic, semantic, and human action switching produced R2 = .263, F(2, 26) = 4.568, p> .05. FAS switching had a significant positive regression weight indicating that greater FAS switching is associated with performance on executive functioning tasks in the first regression model. Verbal fluency switching did not significantly predict difficulties in the performance of instrumental activities of daily living, each model accounted for 2.5% and 11% of the variance, respectively. Verbal fluency switching, specifically phonetic switching demonstrated merit in assessing executive ability. Verbal fluency switching was not indicated in the prediction of difficulties in the performance of IADL's. Human action switching was not a significant predictor of executive ability or IADL performance above and beyond the other forms of switching.

LLU Discipline

Clinical Psychology

Department

Psychology

School

School of Behavioral Health

First Advisor

Ropacki, Susan A.

Second Advisor

Wright, Matthew J.

Third Advisor

Vermeersch, David A.

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Level

Ph.D.

Year Degree Awarded

2013

Date (Title Page)

12-2013

Language

English

Library of Congress/MESH Subject Headings

HIV Infections; Neurobehavioral Manifestations; Task Performance and Analysis; Stroop Test; Trail Making Test; Regression Analysis

Subject - Local

Human Action Switching; Executive Ability; Verbal Fluency Switching; IADL

Type

Thesis

Page Count

53

Digital Format

PDF

Digital Publisher

Loma Linda University Libraries

Usage Rights

This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has granted Loma Linda University a limited, non-exclusive right to make this publication available to the public. The author retains all other copyrights.

Collection

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Collection Website

http://scholarsrepository.llu.edu/etd/

Repository

Loma Linda University. Del E. Webb Memorial Library. University Archives

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