Performance on the Memory Validity Profile in a mixed clinic-referred pediatric sample

ABSTRACT

The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate performance on the Memory Validity Profile (MVP) in a mixed pediatric clinical population. Goal 1, assessing MVP pass rates, yielded a slightly higher pass rate (98.58%) compared to research on other performance validity tests (PVTs) in youth when using manual-based cutoffs and a slightly lower pass rate (84.40%) using an experimental cutoffs (PASS Total ≥31) similar to others’ research. Goal 2, determining if MVP performance was contingent on variables other than effort, yielded significant differences in age, sex, and intelligence (p < 0.05); but not parental education or occurrence/nonoccurrence of previous neurological issues, ADHD, or psychiatric disorders. Goal 3, investigating the agreement of an embedded PVT (Children and Adolescent Memory Profile [ChAMP] List Recognition [LR] subtest) with the MVP in classification of adequate vs. suboptimal effort, showed that the highest levels of consistency (81%) were achieved when experimental MVP and LR ss ≤5 cutoffs were utilized. In conclusion, the MVP is a useful tool in detecting suboptimal effort in children in a broad clinical sample and the ChAMP LR subtest adds to identification of suboptimal effort as an ePVT with the MVP. The established cutoffs stated in the MVP manual should be used, as these better identify suboptimal effort in children by age than experimental cutoffs (i.e., 31 and 32 PASS). The ChAMP LR cutoff should be ss ≤5, with MVP manual-based (75%) or experimental cutoffs (81%).

KEYWORDS:

• Performance validity
• pediatric
• clinical

Acknowledgments

Much gratitude to Dr. Donders for his mentorship and encouragement. We also wish to thank our department support staff, Amanda, Amy, Ashlee, Jackie, Mac, and Tracy; they are essential to our daily functioning. A portion of this study was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology (2019).

Disclosure statement

The authors have no disclosures to make.