H - 53 Performance Validity in a Mexican Population.

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to cross-validate recent research on three embedded performance validity tests (PVTs) in a Spanish-speaking Mexican sample. The sample consisted of 52 male and 77 female participants residing in Mexico with a mean age of 25.26 (SD = 10.45). Participants were neurologically and psychologically healthy and completed a neuropsychological battery in Spanish. The Reliable Digit Span, Phonemic Fluency Test (i.e., FAS), and Semantic Fluency Tests were used to evaluate failure rates in our sample. Daugherty and colleagues' (2022) PVT cutoff scores were used. Chi-square analysis was used to evaluate failure rates between the groups. Chi-square analysis revealed no significant failure rate differences between gender groups on any PVTs. However, we found that 12% of the male group failed the Phonemic Fluency Test compared to 5% of the female group, X2 = 1.747, p = 0.186. Meanwhile, 2% of the male group failed the Semantic Fluency Test compared to 0% of the female group, X2 = 1.492, p = 0.222. Finally, 6% of the male group failed the Reliable Digit Span compared to 17% of the female group, X2 = 3.529, p = 0.060. Our data shows that male participants demonstrate higher failure rates on verbal fluency tasks than females. Moreover, males had lower failure rates compared to females on Reliable Digit Span. Further exploration with bigger sample sizes is needed to explore what may be influencing validity test performance between gender groups. More studies in this area will help researchers and clinicians determine if persons completing cognitive tasks in Spanish are proving adequate effort.