Date of Award

2018

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Psychology

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Poreh, Amir

Subject Headings

Clinical Psychology, Neurosciences

Abstract

In the field of neuropsychology, there is a need for reliable measures that assess for both memory and effort (response bias). A sample of college students were instructed to feign memory deficits. They were administered two well established measures of response bias, the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM) and the Reliable Digits Span (RDS), as well as the Poreh Nonverbal Memory Test (PNMT). The study shows that all of the three measures were able to identify students who were coached to demonstrate memory deficits. A more detailed analysis showed that the TOMM and the PNMT produced higher sensitivity and specificity then the RDS. Process analysis of the PNMT showed that the ability of this measure to detect response bias improved when one analyzed the distance between the target on geometric(simple) cards of the PNMT. Namely, during the delayed recall trial of the PNMT subject who feigned memory deficits clicked on more distant stimuli (from the target) then the control group.

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