VICTORIA SYMPTOM VALIDITY TEST - EFFICIENCY FOR DETECTING FEIGNED MEMORY IMPAIRMENT AND RELATIONSHIP TO NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS AND MMPI-2VALIDITY SCALES

Error scores and response times from a computer-administered, forced-c hoice recognition test of symptom validity were evaluated for efficien cy in detecting feigned memory deficits. Participants included control s (n = 95), experimental malingerers (n = 43), compensation-seeking pa tients (n = 206), and patients not seeking financial compensation (n = 32). Adopting a three-level cut-score system that classified particip ant performance as malingered, questionable, or valid greatly improved sensitivity with relatively little impact on specificity. For error s cores, convergent validity was found to be adequate and divergent vali dity was found to be excellent. Although response times showed promise for assisting in the detection of feigned impairment, divergent and c onvergent validity were weaker, suggesting somewhat less utility than error scores.