An investigation of methods to detect feigned reading disabilities

No clinically proven method currently exists to determine if a test taker is feigning or exaggerating symptoms of a specific reading disability (RD) for potential secondary gain (i.e., extra time on examinations, access to bursary funds, or tax benefits). Our objective was to examine the utility of previously proposed symptom validity measures (i.e., the Dyslexia Assessment of Simulation or Honesty [DASH] and the resulting Feigning Index [FI]) in discriminating students with genuine RDs from sophisticated simulators given ample time to prepare, who were warned that noncredible performance could be detected. The DASH correctly classified almost 83% of coached simulators with no false positives. The FI accurately classified 86% of post-secondary students feigning RD without misidentifying any students with a genuine RD, resulting in 91.8% overall classification accuracy. These two methods show promise as a means of detecting noncredible performance in the assessment of RD.