Validity of the Wechsler Test of Adult Reading (WTAR): Effort Considered in a Clinical Sample of U.S. Military Veterans

Abstract

The current study represents an examination of the construct validity of the Wechsler Test of Adult Reading (WTAR) among a sample of U.S. military veterans referred for outpatient neuropsychological evaluation that included a measure of negative response bias, namely, the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM). This retrospective data analysis examined the relationship between the WTAR and measures of current verbal general intellectual function and current cognitive skills. Findings showed that, among patients passing the TOMM (N = 98), WTAR scores were most highly correlated with current verbal IQ but also showed significant correlations with verbal memory and lesser, but still significant, correlations with measures of visual-spatial memory. Discriminant validity for the WTAR was also shown among the group passing the TOMM in the sense that the WTAR, which is designed to measure verbal premorbid general intellectual skill, was not as highly correlated with measures of learning and memory as was a measure of current verbal general intellectual skill. Whereas scores on most study measures did significantly differ between the groups that passed versus failed the TOMM (N = 26), scores on the WTAR did not, suggesting that the WTAR may remain robust even in the face of suboptimal effort.