The Five Point Test: Age and Education on Test Taking Strategy Ellen F Day, B.S., Brittany Swansboro, B.A., Erika Gobbi, B.A., Michelle Aebi, B.A. Faculty Sponsor: Amir Poreh, Ph.D. Objective The current study examined the effects of strategy utilization when performing a nonverbal fluency test, the Five Point Test. (Regard, Strauss, & Knapp, 1982) Hypotheses Particular types of strategies are more conducive for the production of unique designs. The total number of unique designs will correlate with age, due to general decline in motor speed whereas strategies will correlate better with educational background than age. Participants and Method Participants: 426 (132 male, 294 female) adults from the general population with a mean age of 34.9 years and a range of 17 to 92 years old. Method: Participants were administered the Five Point Test. Results of the assessment were scored by the connections of the five points made on a computer screen using a mouse.  Researchers examined the number of designs created, number of repetitions, number of unique designs, and the addition, rotation, and deletion strategies.  Results A stepwise regression revealed that rotation was significantly related to predicting unique designs, R=.82, R² = .68, F(1,423)= 887.71, p<.001. Rotation may be the best method for predicting the production of unique designs. Addition emerged as the best predictor of number of repetitions, R=.50, R²= . 25, F(1,423)=141.18, p<.001.  Addition caused the highest number of repetitions when creating unique designs. This strategy is not helpful when attempting to produce unique designs. Rotation was significantly related to education, R= .12, R²=.01, F(1,423)= 5.69, p=.018.  Rotation is affected by higher order processing, which may be more prevalent in individuals who have higher levels of education. Unique designs had a significant relationship with age and was the best predictor, R=.39, R²=.15, F(1,423)= 73.95, p<.001. The various strategies scores correlated to a lesser degree, suggesting that the number of designs produced relates to graph-motor speed rather than executive function. Discussion The study demonstrates that from the rotation method is the most efficient strategy for completing the Five Point Test. This strategy correlates highly with education and to a lesser degree with age.  In general, age has a greater effect on the number of designs an individual generates, suggesting it is due to graph-motor speed and manual dexterity. Future research is needed to confirm this prediction. References Regard, M., Strauss, E.,& Knapp, P. (1982). Children’s production on verbal and non-verbal fluency tasks. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 55, 839-844.