ASSESSING BELIEVABLE DEFICITS ON MEASURES OF ATTENTION AND INFORMATION-PROCESSING CAPACITY

The vulnerability of tests of sustained attention and speed of process ing to faked deficits was evaluated by comparing the performances of n ormal controls, healthy subjects asked to simulate deficits, and patie nts with closed head injury on a simple auditory reaction-time task an d on the PASAT. The results revealed that persons attempting to feign the effects of brain injury perform more poorly than non-malingerers o n a simple reaction-time task and the PASAT. The reaction-time task, h owever, proved more effective than the PASAT at detecting dissimulatio n, accurately classifying about 76% of the subjects. This value reflec ts a respectable hit rate for three-group classification.