Computerized analysis of error patterns in digit span recall

Abstract

We analyzed error patterns during digit span (DS) testing in four experiments. In Experiment 1, error patterns analyzed from a community sample of 427 subjects revealed strong primacy and recency effects. Subjects with shorter DSs showed an increased incidence of transposition errors in comparison with other error types and a greater incidence of multiple errors on incorrect trials. Experiment 2 investigated 46 young subjects in three test sessions. The results replicated those of Experiment 1 and demonstrated that error patterns of individual subjects were consistent across repeated test administrations. Experiment 3 investigated 40 subjects from Experiment 2 who feigned symptoms of traumatic brain injury (TBI) with 80% of malingering subjects producing digit spans in the abnormal range. A digit span malingering index (DSMI) was developed to detect atypical error patterns in malingering subjects. Overall, 59% of malingering subjects with abnormal digit spans showed DSMIs in the abnormal range and DSMI values correlated significantly with the magnitude of malingering. Experiment 4 compared 29 patients with TBI with a new group of 38 control subjects. The TBI group showed significant reductions in digit span. Overall, 32% of the TBI patients showed DS abnormalities and 11% showed abnormal DSMIs. Computerized error-pattern analysis improves the sensitivity of DS assessment and can assist in the detection of malingering.