The detection of faked deficits on the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test: The effect of serial position

The ability of subjects to fake deficits on the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) was evaluated. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of two malingering groups — one with a financial incentive (N = 30) and one without (N = 28) — or a control group (C) (N = 28), and a group of closed head injury patients (CHI) (N = 18) was matched on age, sex, and education level. The two malingering groups did not differ significantly and were combined into a single malingering group (M) (N = 57). There was a significant serial position (the pattern of “recency” and “primacy” effects in recall) by group interaction effect, which may be the most promising indicator of deliberate distortion. When only level of performance was examined, the M group could fake believable deficits, but when the serial position effect was examined, it revealed that this was accomplished by suppression of recall from the first third of the word list (reducing the “primacy effect”), a recall pattern which did not occur in either the C or CHI group and may be an indication of malingering.