The Word Reading Test of Effort in Adult Learning Disability: A Simulation Study

Osmon, David C.; Plambeck, Elizabeth; Klein, Liesa A.; Mano, Quintino R.

doi:10.1080/13854040590947434

Cited by 18 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…In cases of suspicious claims of specific cognitive impairment, such as dyslexia, standardized forced-choice testing is recommended and dedicated SVTs have been developed for this purpose, such as the Word Reading Test (WRT; Osmon, Plambeck, Klein, & Mano, 2006). The Emotional Numbing Test (MENT; Morel, 1998) is another example of a standardized forced-choice SVT.…”

Section: The Forced-choice Svt and Its Rationalementioning

confidence: 99%

Forced-Choice Tests as Single-Case Experiments in the Differential Diagnosis of Intentional Symptom Distortion

Merten

2012

Journal of Experimental Psychopathology

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Symptom validity testing has become a prolific research field in neuropsychology. Its original and most powerful version is the forced-choice procedure that continues to play an important role because it allows for an experimental approach to test the hypothesis of intentional symptom distortion. When conducting forced-choice tests, below-chance response patterns are considered to be indicative of this type of distortion. In this article, we discuss the rationale behind the forced-choice technique and its historical development. We also present three case vignettes that illustrate the experimental background of forced-choice testing and how it may help to clarify diagnostic issues. The diagnostic considerations in these cases concerned (1) complete memory loss, (2) Ganser syndrome, and (3) dementia. Employing forced-choice methodology, intentional false symptom production could be demonstrated in all three patients. Thus, the cases demonstrate how, in the context of substantial external benefits, forced-choice testing may help to determine whether healthy individuals try to appear psychologically impaired.

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Section: The Forced-choice Svt and Its Rationalementioning

confidence: 99%

Forced-Choice Tests as Single-Case Experiments in the Differential Diagnosis of Intentional Symptom Distortion

Merten

2012

Journal of Experimental Psychopathology

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“…Students in the simulation condition were emailed to ask them to malinger dyslexia during testing and to prepare themselves for testing by gathering information about dyslexia. The study thus differs slightly from previous studies in which malingerers either had no preparation [ 8 ] or were presented with information and instructions on dyslexia and its symptoms [ 4 – 6 ]. Asking students to find their own information on dyslexia and decide on their strategies before testing more clearly reflects what actual malingerers might do before testing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…Furthermore, about half of the malingerers performed extremely poorly on a word reading accuracy task. On this task, students with dyslexia did not differ from typical readers, indicating that this task might function as a performance validity test [ 4 , 5 , 7 , 8 ]. Poor performance on this particular task provides a contra-indication for dyslexia.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A few studies have looked into performance validity tests in adult populations. Osmon et al [ 8 ], for example, developed a word reading test that distinguished between students feigning reading difficulties and typical readers. In this test participants were shown a word for three seconds followed by a short delay and were then presented with two alternatives.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Simulation of dyslexia. How literacy and cognitive skills can help distinguish college students with dyslexia from malingerers

2018

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Academic accommodations associated with a diagnosis of dyslexia might be incentives for college students without reading or spelling difficulties to feign dyslexia and obtain the diagnosis unfairly. In the current study we examined malingering practices by comparing the performance of college students instructed to malinger dyslexia (n = 28) to that of students actually diagnosed with dyslexia (n = 16). We also included a control group of students without reading and spelling difficulties (n = 28). The test battery included tasks tapping literacy skills as well as underlying cognitive skills associated with literacy outcomes. These tasks are commonly used in diagnosing dyslexia. We examined patterns in the performance of malingerers across tasks and tested whether malingerers could be identified based on their performance on a limited number of tasks. Results indicated that malingerers scored significantly lower than students with dyslexia on reading and spelling skills; i.e., the core characteristics of dyslexia. Especially reading performance was extremely low and not in line with students’ age and level of education. Findings for underlying cognitive skills were mixed. Overall, malingerers scored lower than students with dyslexia on tasks tapping mainly speed, whereas the two groups did not differ on tasks reflecting mainly accuracy. Based on word and pseudoword reading and letter and digit naming, the three groups could be distinguished with reasonable sensitivity and specificity. In all, results indicate that college students seem to understand on which tasks they should feign dyslexia, but tend to exaggerate difficulties on these tasks to the point where diagnosticians should mistrust performance.

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“…However, emerging data show that test-takers motivated to underperform on exam adopt differing strategies (Boone, 2009;Larrabee, 2004;Nitch et al, 2006;Tan, Slick, Strauss, & Hultsch, 2002) with only 16% failing all measures of response bias administered (Boone, 2009). Osmon and colleagues (Osmon, Plambeck, Klein, & Mano, 2006) observed that simulators feigning reading impairment were better detected by a test specifically developed to identify feigned reading deficits than by a commonly used verbal memory effort indicator (Word Memory Test). Additional cases have been reported (Boone, 2009) showing that individuals feigning verbal memory impairment may not be detected by visual memory effort measures (e.g., TOMM, Rey 15-item), while individuals feigning visual perceptual/spatial/memory deficits are not necessarily captured by verbal memory effort indicators (e.g., Warrington Recognition Memory TestWords, Rey Word Recognition Test).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-credible language deficits following mild traumatic brain injury

Cottingham

Boone

2010

The Clinical Neuropsychologist

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Identification of non-credible memory and other cognitive symptoms has received widespread attention within the past two decades. However, minimal information is available regarding patterns of non-credible language symptoms. We present the case of a 36-year-old female civil litigant who displayed delayed onset, severe, relatively focal speech and language symptoms, including difficulties with articulation, dysfluent speech, expressive language impairments with minor receptive difficulties, and lack of prosody, subsequent to a minor head trauma. On neuropsychological evaluation 3 years post injury, the patient presented with the same speech/language characteristics, but additionally exhibited a vague "foreign accent." Cognitive scores generally were normal with the exception of poor performance on many language tasks and processing/motor speed. The patient showed passing performance on most measures of response bias, but she failed effort indicators requiring rapid letter discrimination (b Test), rapid verbal repetition (timed forward digit span), and sensory function (finger agnosia errors) while passing effort indicators falling within the domains of memory, math/number skills, visuo-constructional ability, and attention. Thus, the type of failed effort indicators predicted the categories of standard cognitive tests on which she underperformed. Personality testing revealed patterns generally consistent with hysterical personality orientation. Given her long-standing history of multiple unexplained medical symptoms, the patient was diagnosed with a somatization disorder, as well as a current conversion disorder involving language symptoms. However, given her compensation-seeking status, the possibility of additional conscious feigning of symptoms could not be ruled out. The need for validation of additional measures to detect feigned language impairment is recommended.

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The Word Reading Test of Effort in Adult Learning Disability: A Simulation Study

Cited by 18 publications

References 11 publications

Forced-Choice Tests as Single-Case Experiments in the Differential Diagnosis of Intentional Symptom Distortion

Forced-Choice Tests as Single-Case Experiments in the Differential Diagnosis of Intentional Symptom Distortion

Simulation of dyslexia. How literacy and cognitive skills can help distinguish college students with dyslexia from malingerers

Non-credible language deficits following mild traumatic brain injury

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