Verbal fluency across the lifespan: The role of cognitive reserve and expression suppression in the first 10-s performance.
Abstract
Objective
The study examined verbal fluency performance using a 10-s paradigm in young and older adults, focusing on the role of cognitive reserve (CR) and emotion regulation.
Method
Thirty-eight young adults and 44 healthy older adults completed phonemic, semantic, and emotional fluency tasks, together with standardized assessments of vocabulary, working memory, CR, and emotion regulation. Linear mixed-effects models were used to examine task- and group-related effects, as well as the contribution of established cognitive predictors (vocabulary, backward digit span, and education). Additional models tested the role of CR and expressive suppression, the latter examined in relation to emotional fluency.
Results
Performance differed across fluency types (ηp² = .39, i.e., semantic > phonemic > emotional) and between age groups (ηp² = .11), with young adults outperforming older adults. Vocabulary emerged as the strongest predictor (ηp² = .07), whereas working memory showed only a trend-level effect once lexical knowledge was controlled for (ηp² = .04). Education did not uniquely predict performance. Within emotional fluency, positive emotions elicited higher accuracy than negative emotions (ηp² = .03), and older adults were impaired for negative prompts. Expressive suppression negatively predicted emotional fluency accuracy independently of age (ηp² = .10). Within the older group, higher CR was associated with better overall fluency performance (ηp² = .11).
Conclusions
The 10-s fluency paradigm retains sensitivity to age-related differences while emphasizing rapid, automatic retrieval processes. The results underscore the protective role of CR and identify expressive suppression as a key affective modulator of emotional fluency. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).