Further Consideration of Advanced Clinical Solutions Word Choice: Comparison to the Recognition Memory Test-Words and Classification Accuracy in a Clinical Sample

• Published in: Clinical neuropsychologist Vol. 28; no. 8; pp. 1278 - 1294
• Main Author: Davis, Jeremy J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hove Routledge 17.11.2014; Psychology Press
• Subjects: Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; Performance validity; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics. Diagnostic aid systems; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Recognition (Psychology); Recognition Memory Test; Reproducibility of Results; Sensitivity and Specificity; Techniques and methods; Vocabulary; Wechsler Scales; Word Choice; Human; Recognition memory; Choice; Word; Memory; Neuropsychological test; Psychometrics; Cognition; Recognition Memory Test; Validity; Accuracy; Performance validity; Language; Classification; Performance; Comparative study; Word Choice
• DOI: 10.1080/13854046.2014.975844
• ISSN: 1385-4046

Word Choice (WC), a test in the Advanced Clinical Solutions package for Wechsler measures, was examined in two studies. The first study compared WC to the Recognition Memory Test-Words (RMT-W) in a clinical sample (N = 46). WC scores were significantly higher than RMT-W scores overall and in sample subsets grouped by separate validity indicators. In item-level analyses, WC items demonstrated lower frequency, greater imageability, and higher concreteness than RMT-W items. The second study explored WC classification accuracy in a different clinical sample grouped by separate validity indicators into Pass (n = 54), Fail-1 (n = 17), and Fail-2 (n = 8) groups. WC scores were significantly higher in the Pass group (M = 49.1, SD = 1.9) than in the Fail-1 (M = 46.0, SD = 5.3) and Fail-2 (M = 44.1, SD = 4.8) groups. WC demonstrated area under the curve of .81 in classifying Pass and Fail-2 participants. Using the test manual cutoff associated with a 10% false positive rate, sensitivity was 38% and specificity was 96% in Pass and Fail-2 groups with 24% of Fail-1 participants scoring below cutoff. WC may be optimally used in combination with other measures given observed sensitivity.