Detecting Response Bias with Performance Patterns on an Expanded Version of the Controlled Oral Word Association Test

The present study investigated whether speeded word generation performance patterns seen in healthy subjects are also produced in genuine and feigned traumatic brain injury (TBI). An expanded version of the Controlled Oral Word Association Test was administered to healthy controls, TBI patients, simulated malingerers, and probable clinical malingerers. Four performance patterns were operationalized. Three of these patterns were replicated in the healthy control sample and found to be unaltered by genuine TBI. They were then combined into a logistic regression model that discriminated well between examinees who put forth adequate effort and those who evidenced response bias.