Terminology for Clinical Documentation

Refer to naming members of a category within a time limit as verbal fluency, exemplar generation, or generative naming. Animal naming on some aphasia batteries is an example of verbal fluency. Another frequently used task on examinations is naming as many words that start with a particular letter of the alphabet without including proper nouns.

To document unwanted repetitions in an exemplar generation task such as naming as many animals as possible in a minute, refer to these as perseverations. In other words, an unwanted repetition or perseveration is any repeat of a previously named item. An item not belonging in the category is called a frank error.

Naming objects from descriptions is called naming to description.
Answering wh-questions (who, what, where, how many, when) with one word is called responsive naming.
Naming an object or pictured object is called confrontational naming.

Answering yes versus no questions such as "Is water wet?" is referred to as answering short, concrete yes/no ?s whereas answering yes versus no questions involving comparison or before and after relations is referred to as answering moderately complex yes/no ?s re: comparatives, or before/after relations.