The recognition memory test in the detection of malingered and exaggerated memory deficits

Abstract The capacity of the Recognition Memory Test (RMT) to detect exaggerated or malingered memory impairment was investigated in a study of 30 subjects. Subjects with reported mild head trauma (MT) who were seeking financial compensation obtained significantly lower scores on both subtests of the RMT than subjects who had documented moderate and severe traumatic brain injuries (ST) who were not seeking financial compensation. Of the MT subjects, 50% performed worse on the Words subtest of the RMT than any of the ST subjects. At a 90% specificity level, the sensitivity of the Words subtest to classify correctly the MT subjects was 70%. An unreplicated discriminant function using both RMT subtests resulted in an overall correct classification rate of 76%.