| Symptom validity measurement is an important topic in psychological and neuropsychological assessment as providing accurate results is an ethical obligation (American Psychological Association, 2010, para. 1) and can significantly influence the likelihood of an examinee receiving life-changing benefits or consequences (Slick, Tan, Sherman, & Strauss, 2011). The primary purpose of the present study was to explore the relationship between two popular symptom validity measures, the TOMM and WMT, with a widely used measure of memory, the WMS-IV. This study was conducted as a better understanding of the relationship between these measures could result in increased confidence in obtained assessment results or even allow for eliminating unneeded measures from an assessment battery. A battery of neuropsychological tests, including the TOMM, WMT, and WMS-IV, was administered to 46 undergraduate students. Participants were instructed to provide full effort. Obtained data was analyzed through descriptive statistics as well as multivariate regression and correlational analyses. Nonsignificant regression findings between memory and symptom validity tests were found. Uncorrected correlations between measures were moderate to large. The findings underscore the need to carefully design studies and apply suitable statistical tests. Limited variability on symptom validity test performance, small sample size, and usage of methods to reduce false positives are discussed. The data suggests that, for this sample, symptom validity tests were ineffective in predicting memory performance. Furthermore, symptom validity tests and analogous components of memory measures do not have a differing relationship compared to other measured memory domains. |
