Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between language ability and
neuropsychological performance on the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of
Neuropsychological Status (RBANS). Language ability was measured as naming ability and
verbal fluency via the Boston Naming Test, Second Edition (BNT-2) and Delis-Kaplan Executive
Function System (D-KEFS) Verbal Fluency Condition 1: Letter Fluency and Condition 2:
Category Fluency. Participants included 64 college students (47 females, 16 males, 1 transgender
female) with ages ranging from 18 to 23 years involved in a larger study. The first canonical
correlation yielded a significant, moderate relationship between the measures of language and
RBANS subtests. The second yielded a significant, moderate relationship between the measures
of language and RBANS indices. A significant, moderate correlation was found between Letter
Fluency and Category Fluency, with no significant relationships with the BNT-2. The current
study provides evidence of the impact language ability may have on a brief and widely used
measure of neuropsychological performance. Clinicians may be cautious when administering or
interpreting obtained results of several RBANS indices and subtests, as deficits in language
ability may negatively impact performance. The current study found evidence that performance on several RBANS indices may be impacted by language ability, while fewer RBANS subtests
were impacted. Additionally, RBANS performance may be more impacted by pure language
ability as compared to executive functioning. These results include important considerations for
clinicians administering neuropsychological assessments with patients who may have atypical
language ability.
