title: Invalid performance and the ImPACT in national collegiate athletic association division I football players.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT) is a computerized cognitive test battery commonly used for concussion evaluation. An important aspect of these procedures is baseline testing, but researchers have suggested that many users do not use validity indices to ensure adequate effort during testing. No one has examined the prevalence of invalid performance for college football players.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To examine the prevalence of invalid scores on ImPACT testing.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study.
  
  
  METHODS
  National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I university.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 159 athletes (age = 20.3 ± 1.41 years; range = 17.8-23.7 years) from a Division I collegiate football team participated.
  
  
  METHODS
  An informational intervention regarding the importance of concussion testing to promote safety was administered before testing for the most recent season.
  
  
  METHODS
  We examined preseason ImPACT testing data across a 3-year period (total assessments = 269). Based on invalid and sandbagging indices denoted by the ImPACT manual, protocols were examined to indicate how many invalid indices each athlete had.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 27.9% (n = 75) of assessments were suggestive of invalid scores, with 4.1% (n = 11) suggesting invalid responding only, 17.5% (n = 47) indicating "sandbagging" only, and 6.3% (n = 17) showing both invalid and sandbagging responding. The informational intervention did not reduce the prevalence of invalid responding.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings highlight the need for further information about the ImPACT validity indices and whether they truly reflect poor effort. Future work is needed to identify practices to reliably target and reduce invalid responding.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Kent State University, OH.
authors.forename: Ashley J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Szabo
authors.forename: Michael L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Alosco
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fedor
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gunstad
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D056352:Athletes; D001924:Brain Concussion / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003071:Cognition; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005538:Football; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013334:Students; D058013:Test Taking Skills; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult