Oral reading fluency as a predictor of neuropsychological test performance: Evidence from Hungarian language

Education strongly influences neuropsychological test performance, yet years of schooling often fail to capture educational quality. Oral reading fluency (ORF)-the speed and accuracy of reading aloud-has emerged as a promising proxy for educational level. This study examined whether ORF predicts neuropsychological performance better than years of schooling across languages. A sample of 123 Hungarian-speaking adults (ages 15-83) completed an ORF task and the Multicultural Neuropsychological Scale (MUNS). Simultaneous multiple regression analysis included gender, age, years of schooling and ORF as predictors of MUNS Total scores. Results showed that age (β = -.43) and ORF (β = .37) significantly predicted neuropsychological performance, explaining 50% of variance, whereas gender (.37) and years of schooling (p = .12) were not significant. ORF correlated moderately with schooling (r = .43), indicating partial overlap but distinct contributions. These findings replicate prior results in Spanish speakers, suggesting ORF is a robust cross-linguistic predictor of cognitive performance, even in transparent orthographies like Hungarian. ORF offers a practical tool for neuropsychological assessment, particularly in multicultural contexts where educational systems vary widely.