Battery guide
Language Battery guide
Four tests of naming, vocabulary, letter fluency and the comprehension of written commands, for language research.
- Guide version
- 1.2.0
- Battery version
- 1.0.0
What it measures
Who it is for: Language research.
It measures Word retrieval and naming, Vocabulary knowledge, Letter fluency and Comprehension of written commands.
Language: Recognizing words and using what they mean.
Executive function: Planning, switching rules, handling conflict and making decisions.
Scores describe how a person performs on these tasks. Research use only.
Tests in order
The tests run in this order. A study started from the battery keeps the order and the settings.
1. Picture Naming Test. Measures how well people find the names of familiar things. Pictures of objects and animals appear one at a time and participants type each name. The pictures are emoji from one freely licensed set, and the names span three bands of word frequency.
2. Vocabulary Test. Measures English vocabulary knowledge. Each item shows a word and five others, and participants choose the one that means the same. The 40 items run from common to rare words in four frequency bands.
3. Verbal Fluency. Measures letter fluency. Participants type as many words as they can that start with F, A and S, with 60 seconds per letter by default.
4. Token Commands Task. Measures comprehension of written commands, after the Token Test of De Renzi and Vignolo. Participants see circles and squares in five colors and two sizes and carry out 26 commands in four levels, from "Touch the small blue circle" to commands that move tokens or turn on word order and conditions. The commands are written in the participant's language. Scores the share carried out correctly, overall and by level.
| Order | Test | Domain | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Picture Naming Test | Language | 6 to 10 minutes |
| 2 | Vocabulary Test | Language | 5 to 8 minutes |
| 3 | Verbal Fluency | Executive function | 4 to 6 minutes |
| 4 | Token Commands Task | Language | 6 to 9 minutes |
Time and devices
Allow about 33 minutes for the whole battery. The table gives each test's time.
Participants can use a desktop or laptop, tablet or phone.
On a desktop or laptop the screen must be at least 1024 by 700 pixels.
A tablet or phone needs a screen of at least 360 by 640 pixels.
On phones and tablets, each test is compared only with sessions on the same kind of device. A test shows a percentile there once that reference group holds 50 valid sessions in the participant's age band; until then the report shows raw scores and says so.
Participants need Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.
| Test | Timing | Devices |
|---|---|---|
| Picture Naming Test | Untimed | Desktop or laptop, tablet or phone |
| Vocabulary Test | Untimed | Desktop or laptop, tablet or phone |
| Verbal Fluency | Untimed | Desktop or laptop, tablet or phone |
| Token Commands Task | Untimed | Desktop or laptop, tablet or phone |
Languages
Runs in English only: Picture Naming Test and Vocabulary Test keep their words and sentences in English.
How to give it
Start a study from the battery in the app. The tests, their order and their settings are already set and stay fixed. If you change, reorder or customize a test, the study becomes a custom study and no longer carries the battery.
Each test opens with its instructions. Participants see these:
Picture Naming Test: Each picture is an emoji of an object or an animal. Type its name and press Enter or Submit. If you do not know a name, choose I don't know.
Vocabulary Test: Choose the word that means the same, or nearly the same, as the word at the top.
Verbal Fluency: Type as many words as you can that start with each letter, pressing Enter after each word. Do not use names of people or places, numbers, or the same word with a different ending.
Token Commands Task: Read each command and do what it says: click or tap a token to touch it, or press, slide and let go to move it. Then press Done.
| Step | Before you invite participants |
|---|---|
| 1 | Recruit participants who read English well. |
| 2 | Decide which language details your analysis needs, such as first language or years of schooling, and collect them with your own forms. |
| 3 | Ask participants to take the battery in one quiet sitting, without help and without looking words up. |
| 4 | Pilot the battery yourself on the kind of device your participants will use. |
How each test is scored
The server scores each test when the participant finishes it. The primary score is the one the app compares with a norm. The other scores are reported with it.
Every result records its scoring version. For this battery they are Picture Naming Test 1.0.0, Vocabulary Test 1.0.0, Verbal Fluency 2.0.0 and Token Commands Task 1.0.0.
| Test | Score | What it is | Better |
|---|---|---|---|
| Picture Naming Test | Percent Correct (%, primary) | Percent of pictures shown that were given the target name, an accepted name or either with one spelling slip. A picture with no answer counts as not named. | Higher is better |
| Picture Naming Test | Percent Correct, Higher Frequency (%) | Percent correct among pictures whose names are in the higher word frequency band. | Higher is better |
| Picture Naming Test | Percent Correct, Middle Frequency (%) | Percent correct among pictures whose names are in the middle word frequency band. | Higher is better |
| Picture Naming Test | Percent Correct, Lower Frequency (%) | Percent correct among pictures whose names are in the lower word frequency band. | Higher is better |
| Picture Naming Test | Frequency Effect (%) | Percent correct in the higher band minus the lower band, in percentage points. | Larger values mean naming depended more on how common the word is |
| Picture Naming Test | Median Time to First Key (ms) | Median time from the picture to the first key press on correct answers, over presses at or after 100 ms. | Context for the scores |
| Picture Naming Test | Median Time to First Key, Higher Frequency (ms) | The same time within the higher band. | Context for the scores |
| Picture Naming Test | Median Time to First Key, Middle Frequency (ms) | The same time within the middle band. | Context for the scores |
| Picture Naming Test | Median Time to First Key, Lower Frequency (ms) | The same time within the lower band. | Context for the scores |
| Picture Naming Test | Semantic Errors | Answers that name something related, from a list written for each picture, for example camel for llama. | Context for the scores |
| Picture Naming Test | Other Errors | Answers that are neither correct nor on the related list. | Context for the scores |
| Picture Naming Test | No Answers | Pictures left empty, answered I don't know or given a phrase that says the same. | Context for the scores |
| Picture Naming Test | Spelling Slips | Correct answers with one letter added, missing, changed or swapped, in names of four or more letters. | Context for the scores |
| Picture Naming Test | Answered Pictures | Pictures given an answer other than no answer or text that cannot be a name. | Fewer than a quarter of the planned pictures invalidates the session |
| Picture Naming Test | Longest Empty Run (trials) | Most consecutive pictures with no answer or with text that cannot be a name. | A quarter of the planned pictures, and at least 8, is flagged for review |
| Picture Naming Test | Anticipations | First key presses under 100 ms. They still count for accuracy. | Context for the scores |
| Picture Naming Test | Paste Attempts | Times text was pasted or dropped into the box. Pasting is blocked. | Context for the scores |
| Vocabulary Test | Accuracy (proportion, primary) | Share of items answered correctly; an unanswered item counts as wrong. | Higher is better |
| Vocabulary Test | Items Correct | Items answered correctly. | Higher is better |
| Vocabulary Test | Accuracy, Common Words (proportion) | Share of the common-word items answered correctly. | Higher is better |
| Vocabulary Test | Accuracy, Moderate Words (proportion) | Share of the moderately common items answered correctly. | Higher is better |
| Vocabulary Test | Accuracy, Uncommon Words (proportion) | Share of the uncommon-word items answered correctly. | Higher is better |
| Vocabulary Test | Accuracy, Rare Words (proportion) | Share of the rare-word items answered correctly. | Higher is better |
| Vocabulary Test | Median Correct Time (ms) | Median time to a correct answer; answers under 100 ms are left out. | Lower is faster |
| Vocabulary Test | Unanswered Items | Items whose time ran out without an answer. | Context for accuracy |
| Verbal Fluency | Unique Valid Words (primary) | Words that start with the letter and follow the rules, without repeats. Includes words flagged for review. | Higher is better |
| Verbal Fluency | Verified Words | Valid words confirmed by the English word list. | Higher is better |
| Verbal Fluency | Words for Review | Valid-looking words the word list does not recognize. They count and are flagged for review. | Informational |
| Verbal Fluency | Repetitions | Repeats of an earlier word for the same letter, including simple plurals. | Lower is better |
| Verbal Fluency | Rule Violations | Wrong first letter, numbers, names of people or places, and non-words. | Lower is better |
| Verbal Fluency | Possible Variants | Words that may repeat an earlier word with a different ending. They count and are flagged for review. | Informational |
| Verbal Fluency | Requires Review | 1 when any entry needs researcher review. | Informational |
| Verbal Fluency | Total Entries | All entries, including repetitions and rule violations. | Informational |
| Token Commands Task | Percent Correct (%, primary) | Test commands carried out correctly, of those shown; a command left undone when its time runs out counts as wrong. | Higher means more commands understood and carried out |
| Token Commands Task | Commands Correct | Test commands carried out correctly. | Higher is better; 26 commands at the standard settings |
| Token Commands Task | One Token (%) | Percent correct on the 6 commands that name one token by size, color and shape. | Higher is better |
| Token Commands Task | Two Tokens (%) | Percent correct on the 6 commands that name two tokens. | Higher is better |
| Token Commands Task | Moving Tokens (%) | Percent correct on the 6 commands that move one token on, beside or to touch another. | Higher is better |
| Token Commands Task | Order and Conditions (%) | Percent correct on the 8 commands with before, after, if or except. | Higher is better |
| Token Commands Task | Median Time to First Action (ms) | Median time from a command's onset to the first press, on commands carried out correctly, leaving out presses under 100 ms. | Lower means faster reading and planning; compare within a device type |
| Token Commands Task | Median Completion Time (ms) | Median time from a command's onset to its last action, on commands carried out correctly. | Lower means faster; compare within a device type |
| Token Commands Task | Commands Left Undone | Commands whose time ran out with nothing done. | Expected to be 0 |
| Token Commands Task | Commands Timed Out | Commands that reached their time limit, done or not. | Expected to be 0 |
| Token Commands Task | Presses Under 100 ms | Commands whose first press came within 100 ms of the command appearing. | Expected to be 0 |
| Token Commands Task | Commands Recorded (trials) | Test commands in the scored run. | Fewer than 90% of those set is invalid |
| Token Commands Task | Commands Set (trials) | Test commands the session set out to show. | 26 |
Session quality rules
The app checks every session when it scores it and records one of four states.
An Invalid session stays in the study's results, labelled with its reason, and does not count toward norms.
A session can carry warnings and still be valid. The results list the warnings next to the scores.
| State | What it means |
|---|---|
| Norm-ready | The session passed every check and a norm exists for it, so the app can show a percentile. |
| Raw-only | The scores are usable, but the app shows no percentile. Typical reasons are no norm for the test, changed settings, or a warning that makes a comparison unfair, such as a restart or a screen too short for the display. |
| Invalid technical | The setup broke the timing or the task. Examples are leaving full screen, a browser tab that lost focus during a timed test, and long pauses. |
| Invalid behavioral | The responses suggest the task was not done as asked. Examples are a failed attention check, repeated switching away from the task, and accuracy at or below chance on a choice task. |
Published norms used
No published norm is used for any test in this battery.
ConductCognition also builds norms from its own participants. An age band of a test uses them once it holds at least 50 valid sessions on the same device and input type, run with standard settings and scored with the current scoring version. Sessions from paying customers' studies and from clinical or patient samples do not count.
A report shows a percentile only when the app has stored one for that session. Otherwise it shows the raw scores.
Every reference group covers ages 18 and over. No reference group covers a participant under 18, so their report shows raw scores only, and their sessions do not count toward norms.
How to cite
ConductScience, Inc. Language Battery guide, version 1.2.0. ConductCognition. https://conductcognition.com/batteries/language/guide
Cite the guide version you used. Name the battery version (1.0.0) and the scoring versions listed in this guide.