Establishing supplementary response time validity indicators in the Word Memory Test (WMT) and directions for future research

Abstract

Response time (RT) measures in the Word Memory Test (WMT) offer to complement information derived from conventional accuracy measures. The current study aimed to validate the findings of Lupu, Elbaum, Wagner, and Braw in which RT variability was assessed, for the first time, in the WMT. A secondary aim was to suggest directions for the future research of RT measures in Forced-Choice Recognition Memory Performance Validity Tests (FCRM-PVTs). The study utilized a simulation research design, with participants performing the WMT’s immediate recognition (IR) subtest (N = 59). Mean RTs and a scale which combines accuracy and RT measures, but not variability in RTs, possessed adequate discrimination capacity. Enhanced discrimination capacity was found after discarding the first items’ RTs, though the IR-subtest‘s accuracy measure still showed superiority as a stand-alone validity indicator. The promise of RT measures may, therefore, lie in their ability to illuminate speed-accuracy tradeoffs among examinees with border-zone accuracy scores in FCRM-PVTs. They should, therefore, be regarded as complementary to conventional accuracy measures.