Controlled Oral Word Association Test Explained

Controlled Oral Word Association Test
Purpose:	verbal fluency test
Synonyms:	COWAT

Controlled Oral Word Association Test, abbreviated COWA or COWAT, is a verbal fluency test that measures spontaneous production of words belonging to the same category or beginning with some designated letter.^[1] __TOC__

History

The test was first called the "Verbal Associative Fluency Test", and then was changed to the "Controlled Word Association Test".^[2]

Procedure

The participant is usually asked to name words beginning with a letter, excluding proper nouns, for one minute and this procedure is repeated three times. The most commons letters used are FAS because of their frequency in the English language.^[3] The examiner must quickly write down the words provided by the participant on a piece of paper. The whole examination usually takes 5–10 minutes.

Notes and References

1. Book: Patricia Espe-Pfeifer. Jana Wachsler-Felder. Neuropsychological Interpretation of Objective Psychological Tests. 30 April 2000. Springer. 978-0-306-46224-5. 160.
2. Book: Muriel Deutsch Lezak. Neuropsychological Assessment. registration. 2 March 1995. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-509031-4. 545.
3. Book: Margaret Semrud-Clikeman. Phyllis Anne Teeter Ellison. Child Neuropsychology: Assessment and Interventions for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 2nd Edition. 15 June 2009. Springer. 978-0-387-88963-4. 171.