title: Personality characteristics of patients showing suboptimal cognitive effort.
abstract: This study examined the relationship between performance on the Portland Digit Recognition Test (PDRT) and the MMPI-2 in a group of veterans who were suspected of having motivation to exaggerate cognitive and/or psychiatric symptoms. Number correct on "easy" trials on the PDRT correlated inversely with MMPI-2 measures of psychopathology, whereas number correct on "hard" trials positively correlated with the same scales. Some individuals performed poorly across both types of PDRT trials and had significant MMPI-2 elevations, whereas others performed poorly only on "hard" PDRT trials and had less extreme MMPI-2 elevations. This study reinforces the need to assess the validity of both cognitive and psychiatric symptom complaints.
authors.affiliation: Brown University/Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI 02903, USA. rtemple@lifespan.org
authors.forename: Richard O
authors.initials: RO
authors.lastname: Temple
authors.forename: Angela M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: McBride
authors.forename: Michael David
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: David Horner
authors.forename: Robin M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Taylor
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008950:MMPI; D008297:Male; D008306:Malingering; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010551:Personality; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D014728:Veterans