Specificity rates for non-clinical, bilingual, Mexican Americans on three popular performance validity measures.
OBJECTIVE
To measure specificity as failure rates for non-clinical, bilingual, Mexican Americans on three popular performance validity measures: (a) the language format Reliable Digit Span; (b) visual-perceptual format Test of Memory Malingering; and (c) visual-perceptual format Dot Counting, using optimal/suboptimal effort cut scores developed for monolingual, English-speakers.


METHODS
Participants were 61 consecutive referrals, aged between 18 and 65 years, with <16 years of education who were subjectively bilingual (confirmed via formal assessment) and chose the language of assessment, Spanish or English, for the performance validity tests.


RESULTS
Failure rates were 38% for Reliable Digit Span, 3% for the Test of Memory Malingering, and 7% for Dot Counting. For Reliable Digit Span, the failure rates for Spanish (46%) and English (31%) languages of administration did not differ significantly.


CONCLUSIONS
Optimal/suboptimal effort cut scores derived for monolingual English-speakers can be used with Spanish/English bilinguals when using the visual-perceptual format Test of Memory Malingering and Dot Counting. The high failure rate for Reliable Digit Span suggests it should not be used as a performance validity measure with Spanish/English bilinguals, irrespective of the language of test administration, Spanish or English.
['Gasquoine|Philip G|PG|', 'Weimer|Amy A|AA|', 'Amador|Arnoldo|A|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D000368:Aged D005260:Female D006801:Humans D007802:Language D007807:Language Tests D008297:Male D008306:Malingering D008568:Memory D017058:Mexican Americans D008875:Middle Aged D019303:Multilingualism D009483:Neuropsychological Tests D011597:Psychomotor Performance D015203:Reproducibility of Results D014796:Visual Perception D055815:Young Adult
Hispanic Americans Spanish–English bilingualism effort in neuropsychological testing false positive rates symptom validity tests