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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 97 (2013) 266 – 270

The 9th International Conference on Cognitive Science

Factors affecting letter fluency performance among Indonesian

undergraduate students: A short report
Donny Hendrawan*
Faculty of Psychology Universitas Indonesia, Depok 16424, Indonesia

Abstract

Letter fluency is one of the executive function tests most frequently used to measure higher mental cognitive processes. In the
present study, the influences of academic background, gender, intelligence, and the fluency aspect of creativity on letter fluency
scores were evaluated. A total of 48 undergraduate students (20 males and 28 females) from two different academic
backgrounds (social science and exact science) participated in this study. The results indicated that gender and academic
background had no significant effect on the performance of letter fluency. On the other hand, intelligence and fluency aspect of
creativity were significantly associated with the performance of letter ffluency. Furthermore, the impact of intelligence on
performance in the letter fluency task was fully mediated by the fluency aspect of creativity, which might suggest that the letter
fluency and the fluency aspect of creativity measure the similar constructs.

©
© 2013 The Authors.
2013 The Authors.Published
Publishedbyby Elsevier
Elsevier Ltd.Ltd.
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and/orpeer-review
Selection and/or peer-reviewunder
under responsibility
responsibility of the
of the Universiti
Universiti Malaysia
Malaysia Sarawak
Sarawak.

Keywords: Executive function; Letter fluency; Indonesian; Intelligence; Fluency aspect of creativity; Gender; Academic background

1. Introduction

Executive function is defined as a set of higher cognitive processes engaged in purposeful and goal-directed
behaviors [15]. One of the most popular executive function tests applied in research and clinical setting is letter
fluency. During this test, a participant is encouraged to produce as many words beginning with a specified initial
letter as possible within a limited time. The previous study has successfully identified stimuli factors of letter
fluency for Bahasa Indonesia, and has confirmed the importance of cultural and linguistic background
considerations when developing this test for a specific language in order to achieve accurate measurements [6].
Besides cultural and linguistic backgrounds, some other factors are believed to influence the letter fluency
performance. Several studies found that age [13], education [8], and gender [2] are significantly confirmed as good
predictors of letter fluency. Moreover, other factors, such as intelligence [2] and academic discipline [1] also have
significant impacts on the performance of letter fluency. In addition, Carlsson, Wendt, and Risberg [4] confirmed
the relationship between creativity and bilateral prefrontal cortex activity during letter fluency testing. This finding

* Corresponding author. Tel.:+62-21-727-0004; fax: +62-21-786-3526

E-mail address: donny.hendrawan@ui.ac.id

1877-0428 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.232
 Donny Hendrawan / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 97 (2013) 266 – 270 267

suggested that executive function might play an important role in creativity; however, some studies have reached
contradictory conclusions in terms of the relative contribution of each factor to the performance of letter fluency.
Thus, the purpose of this study is to further investigate the factors affecting the performance of letter fluency,
especially in an Indonesian-speaking sample that has a unique cultural and linguistic background. More concretely,
the researcher goal is to assess the extent to which, intelligence, creativity, gender, and educational background
influence letter fluency performance among Indonesian undergraduates. This study is a small part of a larger
research project that has the overarching aim of developing normative data on verbal fluency tests for Indonesian-
speaking participants.

2. Methods

2.1. Participants

A total of 48 healthy undergraduate students (20 males and 28 females) from different academic backgrounds
(social science and exact science) participated in this study. Participants were screened to check for any exclusion
criteria, i.e., neurological and psychiatric disorders, a history of substance or alcohol abuse, current medication use
that affects on the central nervous system, left-handedness or mix-handedness, Bahasa Indonesia as a non-first
language. In addition, participants who performed below average on the Indonesian version of the Culture Fair
Intelligence Test (CFIT) Scale 3 Form B [5] and on the similarities test of the Indonesian version of the Wechsler
Bellevue Intelligence Scale (WBIS) [14], as estimated by IQ index, were also eliminated.

2.2. Instruments

CFIT Scale 3 Form B [5]: This test was used to assess the general intelligence of participants. It is a paper-and-
pencil based speed test, consisting of four subtests, i.e., series, classifications, matrices, and conditions, to be
completed within 12.5 minutes. The CFIT is regarded as an outstanding brief and non-verbal assessment of general
intelligence (Ruiz, 2009) that can be administered in a group format.
WBIS similarities test [14]: Participants are asked to identify the sameness between two words (objects or
concepts). This test was modified as a group-administered paper-and-pencil test in accordance with the
modification of the WAIS similarities test proposed by [12]. The similarities test is regarded as one of the most
reliable measures of intellectual ability and is strongly affected by language and word knowledge [9]. The old
versions of these tests were employed in this study since they are widely used in clinical and practical use in
Indonesia.
Fluency aspect of the creativity test [10]: This is a written task that encourages participants to list as many words
that begin with a certain syllable as possible within 2 minutes. This test was assumed to have a construct similar to
that of the letter fluency test.
Letter fluency test: The participants were encouraged to generate as many words as possible vocally within 1
minute for each initial letter.

2.3. Procedures

A 1.5 hour screening process was conducted in groups by a certified psychologist assisted by two research
assistants. Participants were not permitted to smoke for at least two hours or drink alcohol for at least 24 hours prior
to the initiation of the session. A light meal was provided in anticipation of the participants having skipped
breakfast. After informed consent was collected, an extensive life history report form was provided to obtain data
on demographics and health status. In addition, CFIT, the WBIS similarities test, and the fluency aspect of the
creativity test [10] were distributed as group-administered paper-and-pencil tests to assess the participants` cognitive
capacities. Successful participants were invited to participate in the letter fluency session. In the letter fluency
evaluation, proper nouns, repeated words, meaningless words, and words differing only by their suffix were
eliminated. An IC recorder (ICD-U70 SONY) was used to record the voice of participants. In order to confirm
s were meaningful words and whether the words were officially recognized in the
Indonesian language, the online Indonesian dictionary (http://pusatbahasa.kemdiknas.go.id/kbbi/) was used
268 Donny Hendrawan / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 97 (2013) 266 – 270

2.4. Research design

A 2x2 factorial design was adopted in this experiment to evaluate the main and interaction effects of
independence variables on letter fluency performance. The independent variables provided two levels of gender
(male, female) and two levels of educational background (exact science, social science). In addition, Pearson
correlation and hierarchical multiple regression were applied to examine the relationship among letter fluency,
intelligence, and the fluency aspect of creativity.

3. Results and Discussion

Results indicated that there were no any significant main or interaction effects among independent variables on
the letter fluency performance. A significant positive relationship between letter fluency and intelligence (CFIT and
similarity) was found. Further, the highest positive correlation was found between letter fluency and the fluency
aspect of creativity, which suggests that any similar construct is shared between them (Table 1).

Table 1. Correlation among letter fluency, intelligence, and fluency aspect of creativity

Pearson Letter fluency CFIT Similarity Creativity

Letter fluency - .41** .37** .66**
CFIT - .40** .48**
Similarity - .41**
Creativity -
CFIT : Culture Fair Intelligence Test

Finally, to evaluate whether creativity mediated estimated IQ in predicting letter fluency performance, a
hierarchical multiple regression analysis (enter method) was performed, using estimated IQ (CFIT Score and
Similarity score) in the first step and creativity in the second. The estimated IQ alone (the independent variable, IV)
was found to be related to letter fluency performance, F (2, 45) = 6.33, p < 0.01, adj. R2 = .18 (the dependent
variable, DV). The addition of the creativity variable accounted for a significant amount of additional variance in
the letter fluency variable F (3, 44) = 18.83, p < 0.00, adj. R2 = .42. The regression coefficients for estimated IQ,
which were statistically significant in the first step of the analysis, were not significant in the second step when the
creativity variable was entered, suggesting a complete mediation of IQ estimation in letter fluency performance by
the creativity variable (Table 2).

Table 2. Results of Hierarchical Regressions

㻌 t p
Model 1
Predicting letter fluency performance (DV)
CFIT score (IV) .31 2.19 .03
Similarity score (IV) .24 1.71 .09

Model 2
Predicting letter fluency performance (DV)
CFIT score (IV) .09 .71 .48
Similarity score (IV) .10 .77 .44
The fluency aspect of creativity (M) .57 4.34 .00

DV = Dependent Variable M = Mediator

IV = Independent Variable CFIT = Culture Fair Intelligence Test
 Donny Hendrawan / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 97 (2013) 266 – 270 269

In the present study, letter fluency was found to be significantly associated with intelligence and the fluency
aspect of creativity. This is accordance with previous findings [2, 4]. The results of multiple regression analysis
confirmed the highest contribution of the fluency aspect of creativity on letter fluency performance. This suggests
that the fluency aspect of creativity and letter fluency measure similar constructs. Thus, the verbal creativity test for
the fluency subtest might be employed as an alternate written form of the letter fluency test; however, gender and
academic had no significant effect on the number of words produced. Although Bolla [2] found a significant effect
with respect to gender, insignificant results were also reported by [3] as well as [7].
This study has makes a significant contribution by identifying the factors affecting the letter fluency performance
among Indonesian undergraduate students, which is very important in developing normative data for this test in the
future; however, the limited number of participants included in this sample might limit the generalizability of this
findings. Thus, a larger number of participants should be included in future research.

4. Conclusion

The present findings support the relative contributions of intelligence and creativity on letter fluency
performance among Indonesian undergraduate students, while suggesting that differences of gender and academic
background have little effect; however, these preliminary conclusions should be further confirmed by testing a large
number of participants and eliminating any other secondary variables.

Acknowledgement

The author wishes to thank Lia M. Boediman, M.S.C.P., Psy.D. for her comments and assistance on editing the
English language of this manuscript.

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