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The Rey 15-item Test is a public-domain, memory-based performance validity test, frequently used in clinical settings. Various efforts have been made to modify the test to make it more sensitive and more robust to effects of lower education and intelligence. The most promising of these is the addition of a recognition trial to the existing free recall paradigm.The present study explored the use of the Rey-15 + Recognition Trial in a sample of 155 younger U.S. military veterans seen for evaluation of mild traumatic brain injury or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (50 cases classified as invalid, 105 classified as valid).Optimal classification accuracy was obtained on the Combination index (cutoff ≤23, sensitivity = 50%, specificity = 95%) and the Recognition Hits score (cutoff ≤11, sensitivity = 52%, specificity = 93%). The Free Recall score had somewhat lower sensitivity when a similar 95% specificity threshold was set (cutoff ≤11, 38% sensitivity). A qualitative error score used in previous studies did not improve classification accuracy.The Rey-15 + Recognition Trial proved to be effective, with particular advantage bestowed by the recognition trial. Implications of these findings in the context of the study's clinical sample of military veterans and in the broader literature are discussed.

Objective: Performance validity assessment is a crucial component of any neuropsychological evaluation, particularly in settings where potential exaggeration of complaints and deficits is heightene...

Tobacco use is a prevalent problem in the general population as well as among military veterans. Despite the fact that tobacco users are at an increased risk of many medical and psychiatric comorbidities, the risk of cognitive impairment in younger active tobacco users is less studied. Military veterans from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan (n = 113) were administered a neuropsychological protocol. Even after controlling for the severity of PTSD symptoms, tobacco use was negatively related to performance on measures of processing speed, memory, and executive functioning. The current findings have implications for the neuropsychological evaluation of tobacco users.

The use of the Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory (NSI) by U.S. Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs (VA) providers for all mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) evaluations led to the development of methods to screen for symptom exaggeration. The present study was designed to explore the clinical utility of three metrics-the Validity-10 scale, the NSI total score, and the mild Brain Injury Atypical Symptoms Scale (mBIAS)-relative to the results of several different criterion measures of symptom validity.Participants in this study were 82 U.S. military veterans referred for evaluations by a VA polytrauma clinic in the context of a history of mTBI. All participants were administered the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Second Edition-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF), NSI, and mBIAS.None of the three scales displayed adequate accuracy at predicting failure on cognitive performance validity tests or on the MMPI-2-RF Fp-r scale. For the remaining MMPI-2-RF overreporting indices (F-r, Fs, FBS-r, RBS) and for an index based on elevation of any single MMPI-2-RF overreporting index, both the NSI total score and Validity-10 displayed high positive predictive power with adequate to good sensitivity values (39% to 76%).These findings support the use of Validity-10 and NSI total score as symptom validity tests (SVTs) that can be used to assess for neurobehavioral symptom exaggeration.

Objective: Forced-choice (FC) recognition memory is a common performance validity assessment methodology. This study introduces and evaluates the classification accuracy of a FC recognition trial for the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). Method: The present sample of 122 military veterans (Mean age = 35.4, SD = 9.3) were all administered the RAVLT along with the FC procedure as part of a full neuropsychological protocol. Veterans were assigned to valid (n = 94) or invalid (n = 28) groups based on outcomes of performance validity measures. Results: The FC procedure was found to have strong sensitivity (67.9%) and specificity (92.6%) in predicting validity group status based on a cutoff score of ≤ 13. The FC trial outperformed RAVLT recognition hits (sensitivity = 46.4%, specificity = 91.5%) as a predictor of invalid performance. Conclusions: The RAVLT FC is demonstrated to be an effective measure of performance validity and is recommended for use as an adjunctive trial for the RAVLT.

Longitudinal normative data obtained from a robust elderly sample (i.e., believed to be free from neurodegenerative disease) are sparse. The purpose of the present study was to develop reliable change indices (RCIs) that can assist with interpretation of test score changes relative to a healthy sample of older adults (ages 50+). Participants were 4217 individuals who completed at least three annual evaluations at one of 34 past and present Alzheimer’s Disease Centers throughout the United States. All participants were diagnosed as cognitively normal at every study visit, which ranged from three to nine approximately annual evaluations. One-year RCIs were calculated for 11 neuropsychological variables in the Uniform Data Set by regressing follow-up test scores onto baseline test scores, age, education, visit number, post-baseline assessment interval, race, and sex in a linear mixed effects regression framework. In addition, the cumulative frequency distributions of raw score changes were examined to describe the base rates of test score changes. Baseline test score, age, education, and race were robust predictors of follow-up test scores across most tests. The effects of maturation (aging) were more pronounced on tests related to attention and executive functioning, whereas practice effects were more pronounced on tests of episodic and semantic memory. Interpretation of longitudinal changes on 11 cognitive test variables can be facilitated through the use of reliable change intervals and base rates of score changes in this robust sample of older adults. A Web-based calculator is provided to assist neuropsychologists with interpretation of longitudinal change. (JINS, 2015, 21, 558–567)

While recognition memory has been the primary tool for the assessment of performance validity in neuropsychological evaluations, some consideration has also been given to embedded measures from other cognitive domains, including processing speed. The present study evaluated the classification accuracy of several speed-based measures in a Veterans Affairs Medical Center Polytrauma sample.The present sample consisted of 114 military veterans (Mean age = 35.5, SD = 9.4) referred for a suspected history of mild traumatic brain injury who were administered a full neuropsychological protocol that included several validity checks. Veterans were assigned to Valid (n = 80) or Invalid (n = 34) groups based on outcomes of performance validity measures (PVMs).Several processing speed measures yielded acceptable or excellent classification accuracy; sensitivity values ranged from 29 to 53% with specificity values above 90%. Efforts to identify an improved algorithm that would collapse across multiple processing speed PVMs were unsuccessful compared to classification based on single measures.Processing speed measures can serve as efficient performance validity assessment tools.

The history including some of the intellectual origins of the Boston Process Approach and some misconceptions about the Boston Process Approach are reviewed. The influence of Gestalt psychology and Edith Kaplan's principal collaborators regarding the development of the Boston Process Approach is discussed.

The current study examined the effect of diagnosis threat on self-efficacy and neuropsychological performance in mild traumatic brain injury (TBI). Forty-nine participants with a history of mild TBI were randomized to a diagnosis threat or control group. The diagnosis threat group were told they were selected based on their history of TBI, while control group participants were told to perform their best. Individuals in the diagnosis threat group reported significantly lower academic self-efficacy than control participants. The groups performed differently on only one neuropsychological measure. These results suggest that diagnosis threat may have a greater impact on psychological factors than on cognitive performance.

The Finger Tapping Test (FTT) and Grooved Pegboard Test (GPT) are commonly used in neuropsychological assessments. The performance of healthy older adults on these tasks has not been well characterized in the existing literature. The present study examines FTT and GPT performance in a sample of 307 community-dwelling older individuals (ages 55-74) with no neurological or psychiatric history.FTT performance was influenced by age, gender, and education, while GPT performance was influenced by age and gender. Findings are presented for both hands, as well as dominant-to-non-dominant hand ratio score, on each test. Correlations with other neuropsychological measures demonstrated that the GPT is more strongly correlated with measures of most domains (memory, processing speed, executive functioning, and spatial organization) than the FTT.While the FTT can be used to measure upper extremity motor ability, the GPT may be more strongly associated with general cognitive functioning in healthy adults. The FTT and GPT results presented will improve the utility of these tasks in clinical assessments of older adults.

It is well established that performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) tends to decline with advanced age, but the reason for this decline has not been established. The objective of the present study was to clarify this question using a qualitative approach to the task. The WCST was administered to 19 older adults and 25 younger participants. In addition to standard testing procedures, all participants were asked to verbalize their response strategy when placing each card. Results of this procedure implicate poor set shifting and set maintenance, consistent with reduced efficiency of feedback utilization, as the primary cause for age-related decline on the WCST.

Several studies have reported that the presence of a third party observer during neuropsychological assessment negatively affects the test performance of the examinee. A previous study (Constantinou, Ashendorf, & McCaffrey, 2002) demonstrated that the presence of an audio recorder as the third party observer during neuropsychological assessment also has a negative effect on the performance. The present study was designed to investigate whether or not a video recorder as the third party observer affects neuropsychological test performance. Results showed that the presence of a video recorder had a negative impact on memory test scores. This study confirms findings from the social facilitation literature that the presence of a video camera impacts task performance, and also replicates our earlier work with an audio recorder as third party observer.

Tests of possible malingering are in increasing demand among neuropsychologists. The Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM) is resistant to many neurological conditions, including traumatic brain injury, dementia, and aphasia. Less clear is the impact of psychological conditions on TOMM performance. This study examined a sample of community-based older adults (55-75) to determine whether scores on the TOMM are influenced by the presence of symptoms of depression or anxiety, as measured by the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), respectively. The results indicate that, regardless of BDI or STAI scores, all subjects scored above 45 correct out of 50 on TOMM Trial 2. These findings demonstrate that depression and anxiety levels in an older community-dwelling sample do not negatively affect performance on the TOMM.

The importance of the detection of possible symptom exaggeration/malingering has gained increased attention among neuropsychologists, and as a result, a number of techniques have been developed for the identification of suspected malingering. The goal of this study was to examine the extent towhich several of these commonly used techniques correlate with one another in a clinical sample. Archival data on 97 litigants were analyzed, and scores on the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM), Rey 15-Item Test (Rey-15), and MMPI-2 validity scales were compared. The MMPI-2 validity scales did not positively correlate with any trial on the TOMM or with the Rey-15, with the exception of the Fb scale which significantly negatively correlated with TOMM trial 1. The results of the present study suggest that the MMPI-2 validity scales are measuring a different construct than tests of malingered memory deficits, and therefore should be interpreted cautiously in forensic evaluations.

The presence of third parties during neuropsychological evaluations is an issue of concern for contemporary neuropsychologists. Previous studies have reported that the presence of an observer during neuropsychological testing alters the performance of individuals under evaluation. The present study sought to investigate whether audio-recording affects the neuropsychological test performance of individuals in the same way that third party observation does. In the presence of an audio-recorder the performance of the participants on memory tests declined. Performance on motor tests, on the other hand, was not affected by the presence of an audio-recorder. The implications of these findings in forensic neuropsychological evaluations are discussed.

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV) does not include the optional Incidental Learning procedure for the Digit-Symbol subtest (now simply called Coding) that had been available in the WAIS-Third Edition (WAIS-III). However, the procedure itself has been shown to have some utility in assessment of incidental memory processes. The current study of a mixed clinical outpatient sample (n = 75) sought to identify salient characteristics of the Incidental Learning tasks as applied to WAIS-IV Coding. Findings showed that the Pairing procedure, when applied to the WAIS-IV, has different characteristics than it did with the WAIS-III; it is more difficult overall, and different items tend to be more prominently recalled than others. The Free Recall procedure for the WAIS-IV is comparable to the WAIS-III version in overall difficulty. Implications and implementation of the current findings are discussed.

The primary goal of this study was to establish the stability of the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT-3) Reading score across two annual assessments of aging individuals. Participants were classified as controls (n = 200), mild cognitive impairment (MCI; n = 137), or possible or probable Alzheimer's disease (AD; n = 41). Test-retest stability was acceptable to high for all diagnostic groups. The descriptive classification (e.g., "average") remained consistent for only 74% of participants. Results indicated that WRAT-3 Reading scores are appropriate for use with older adults, though the use of categorical descriptors to describe premorbid ability based on these scores is not supported.

The objective of the present study was to provide normative data for Trail Making Test (TMT) time to completion and performance errors among cognitively normal older adults, and to examine TMT error rates in conjunction with time scores for pre-clinical and clinical Alzheimer's disease (AD) diagnostic decision-making. A sample of 526 individuals was classified into three diagnostic groups (normal controls, N=269; mild cognitive impairment, MCI, N=200; AD, N=57) by a multidisciplinary consensus conference. Results indicated that performance differed among the three groups for TMT A and B time scores as well as TMT B error rate. Diagnostic classification accuracy (i.e., sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive powers) is described for various combinations of the diagnostic groups. The findings show that TMT B time and errors are independently meaningful scores, and both therefore have clinical utility in assessing individuals referred for dementia evaluations.

Tests of odor identification, such as the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT; Doty, 1995), are used in both research and clinical settings to assess the individual's sense of smell. Although previous studies have evaluated the psychometric properties of the UPSIT, little research has been conducted explicitly with unimpaired adults. This study evaluated the results of the UPSIT for 197 community-dwelling adults between the ages of 55 and 75. An item analysis identified six items that had poor hit rates in this sample. Implications of these results are discussed.

The detection of suboptimal effort has become crucial in clinical neuropsychological practice in order to make accurate diagnoses, prognoses, and referrals. Symptom Validity Testing (SVT) has been the most commonly utilized model for assessing effort, and frequently includes recognition memory tasks. Some conflicting views on this model purport, however, that measures of effort gathered from a recognition memory paradigm do not necessarily extend to effort in other cognitive domains and other areas of performance. The present study sought to investigate whether performance on an SVT measure, which utilizes recognition memory, the TOMM, could predict performance on other measures that do not evaluate recognition memory or just memory per se in a group of mildly traumatic brain-injured litigants. Results indicated that poor performance on the TOMM was significantly correlated with poorer performance on the WAIS-R and the HRNB-A. Further, experimental exploration of these results indicated that the overall neuropsychological performance of litigants with suboptimal effort was poorer than what is generally expected from mild TBI individuals, and was also lower than the other mild TBI examinees in the study, who were not classified by the TOMM as exhibiting suboptimal effort. These findings support the proposition that poor effort as measured by recognition memory effort measures is not restricted to recognition and memory measures. In fact, in the present study it appears that a poor performance on the TOMM is predictive of a generalized poorer performance on standardized measures such as the WAIS-R and the HNRB-A.

Strategies for the detection of possible malingering have largely taken two forms. First is the development and validation of domain-specific measures of malingering designed specifically for the detection of malingering (e.g., Test Of Memory Malingering, Word Memory Test, and Word Completion Memory Test). The second has been the development and evaluation of performance patterns and cutoff scores applicable to commonly used neuropsychological instruments. Two such instruments that have been examined are the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT). While several studies propose possible cutoff scores and actuarial judgement strategies for these tests, the specificity of these strategies within older, nonimpaired adults has not been established. Without proper evaluation of potential age-related effects within these strategies, the actual utility of the strategies within suspected malingerers who are older adults is unknown. Therefore, the present study was conducted to evaluate the specificity of the proposed strategies for detecting possible malingering with the WCST and the CVLT in a sample of older, community-dwelling, nonimpaired adults. The results suggest that the currently existing WCST formulas may have limited utility for the detection of malingering with older adults while the CVLT strategies do appear to have potential clinical utility. The potential of these formulas for use with older adults is discussed.