Validation and psychometric properties of the Word Choice Test-10 as an abbreviated performance validity test

Objective: The objective of the current investigation was to validate and establish the psychometric properties of an abbreviated, 10-item version of the Word Choice Test (WCT). Method: Data from one hundred ten clinically-referred participants (M age = 55.92, SD = 14.07; M education = 13.74, SD = 2.43; 84.5% Male) in a Veterans Affairs neuropsychology outpatient clinic was analyzed. All participants completed the WCT, the TOMM T1, the WMT, and the Digit Span subtest of the WAIS-IV as part of a larger battery of neuropsychological tests. Results: Correlation analyses revealed significant relationships between the 10-item WCT-10, the TOMM T1, the RDS forward/backward, as well as the IR, DR, and CNS subtests of the WMT. ROC analysis for the WCT-10 indicated optimal cutoff of 2 or more errors, with 52% sensitivity and 97% specificity (AUC=.786, p<.001), compared with the standard administration of the WCT with a cutoff of 8 or more errors, which had 67% sensitivity and 91% specificity. Specificity/sensitivity values remained adequate at a cutoff of two or more errors when participants with cognitive impairment (Sensitivity=.52, Specificity=.92) and without cognitive impairment (Sensitivity=.52, Specificity = 1.0) were examined separately. Conclusions: The present investigation revealed that the WCT-10, an abbreviated free-standing PVT comprised of the initial 10 items of the WCT, demonstrated clinical utility in a mixed clinical sample of Veterans and was robust to cognitive impairment. This abbreviated PVT may benefit researchers and clinicians through adequate identification of invalid performance while minimizing completion time.