Category Test Validity Indicators

SUMMARY

The Category Test (CatT) has been one of the most frequently administered neuropsychological tests for many years, in common usage with traumatic brain injury patients and in forensic cases. Since 1985 there have been a number of attempts to delineate the performances of brain injury simulators and malingerers. The present paper reviews the history of these attempts, with particular attention to the CatT validity indicators developed by Bolter (1985) and by Tenhula and Sweet (1996). Similarities and differences between studies are discussed and clinical practice recommendations and limitations are enumerated. In keeping with the universal recommendations for effort tests and validity indicators from reviews of the neuropsychological malingering literature in the last 12 years, CatT validity indicators should not be viewed in isolation. Rather, they should be considered primarily with regard to validity of CatT results and as one source of relevant information in the detection of insufficient effort and the ultimate complex judgment, among a subset of insufficient effort cases, that the cause is malingering. Implications for meeting Daubert evidentiary standards are discussed.

Key Words:

• Category test
• effort
• TBI
• malingering
• validity indicators