Validation of a new technique to detect malingering of cognitive symptoms: the b Test.

We administered the b Test, a new measure to identify malingering requiring recognition of overlearned information, to 34 suspected malingerers and to 161 subjects in various clinical groups (moderate to severe head injury, elderly depressed, learning disability, schizophrenia, right and left CVA, and elderly normals). Comparisons of groups revealed more commission and omission errors in the suspected malingerers relative to all groups except the right stroke patients. In addition, suspected malingerers took longer to complete the task than all groups except right and left stroke patients and normal elderly. A cutoff of >2 commission errors produced a sensitivity of 76.5% and specificity for all comparison groups combined of 82.6%. Lower sensitivity rates were documented for omissions (58.8 using cutoff of >40) and time (57.6% using cutoff of >12 minutes), but specificity remained high at 85.1% and 83.9%, respectively. Thus, the b Test shows considerable potential as a malingering detection tool.