DETECTION OF FEIGNED COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT - THE 2-ALTERNATIVE FORCED-CHOICE METHOD COMPARED WITH SELECTED CONVENTIONAL TESTS

A two-alternative forced-choice test, two putative malingering tests, and four neuropsychological tests were administered to 105 prison inma tes (51 males and 54 females) and 108 university students (54 males an d 54 females) in one of three conditions: naive faking, coached faking , and control. Six of the seven tests differentiated faking subjects f rom controls, but only the forced-choice test differentiated between n aive and coached faking. Even though only 11% of the faking subjects p erformed below the level of chance on the forced-choice test, this tes t was more sensitive than other tests in distinguishing between faking subjects and controls. The putative malingering tests were the least sensitive measures. The most salient difference between inmates and st udents was that faking inmates did not respond to a bogus difficulty m anipulation in the forced-choice test. The results indicate that the f orced-choice method is a sensitive means of detecting dishonest perfor mance even when scores do not fall below chance.