Lowered cutoffs to reduce false positives on the Word Memory Test

Area of Science:

• Neuropsychology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• The Word Memory Test (WMT) is a performance validity test (PVT) used to detect insufficient effort in cognitive assessments.
• Minimizing false positives in PVTs is crucial for accurate clinical decision-making.

Purpose of the Study:

• To adjust the WMT decision criterion to minimize false positives.
• To identify an optimal cut score for the WMT using archival data.

Main Methods:

• Archival data from 3,210 participants were analyzed.
• WMT results were compared using original scoring rules versus adjusted rules based on the IR and DR subtests.
• A criterion PVT (C-PVT) composite of 16 tests was used to estimate validity status.

Main Results:

• Adjusted WMT rules (77.5% cutoff on IR/DR subtests) showed 80.8% agreement with the C-PVT criterion, an improvement of 12.1% over original rules.
• The adjusted rules reduced false positives by 49.2% while maintaining 53.6% sensitivity.
• The new rules yielded 88.8% specificity with an 11.2% false positive rate.

Conclusions:

• Lowering the WMT correct responding cut score from 82.5% to 77.5% is recommended.
• Discontinuing the use of the WMT Consistency subtest score for failure determination is advised.