A - 185 Validating 10 Critical Items of the Word Choice Test (WCT-CI-10).

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to identify ten critical items of the Word Choice Test (WCT) and validate the items as an abbreviated PVT (WCT-CI-10). The study included a diverse sample of veterans (M age = 55.87, SD = 14.10; M education = 13.89, SD = 2.55; 85.4% Male; 49.4% White, 33.7% Hispanic, 12.4% African American, 2.2% Multiracial, 1.1% American Indian, 1.1% Other). Chi-square analyses were used to determine the 10 critical items (WCT-CI-10) from the full WCT. A receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis was then conducted to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the WCT-CI-10 as well as identify an optimal cut score. The relationship between the WCT-CI-10 and other established PVTs was conducted by using bivariate correlations. WCT-CI-10 total scores were found to be significantly correlated with widely used and validated PVTs at the p < 0.001 level ranging from.48 to 0.70. ROC curve analysis for the WCT-CI-10 indicated optimal cutoff of ≥2 errors, with 68% sensitivity and 97% specificity (AUC = 0.907, p < 0.001) which is comparable to standard 50-item WCT which indicated an optimal cutoff of ≥8 errors with 70% sensitivity and 91% specificity (AUC = 0.890, p < 0.001). In this study we have identified 10 critical items of the WCT with adequate sensitivity and specificity for the detection of invalid performance. These results provide preliminary evidence for future research including these ten critical items as a theoretical basis for validating them as an abbreviated PVT measure.