Detecting malingering on the WAIS-III Unusual Digit Span performance patterns in the normal population and in clinical groups

In several studies, suppressed Digit Span performance has been proposed as a potential marker for deliberately poor performance in a neuropsychological evaluation. The purpose of this study was to document Digit Span performance patterns in the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Third Edition (WAIS-III; Wechsler, 1997) standardization sample and selected clinical groups. Base rate tables were generated for the Digit Span scaled score, longest span forward, longest span backward, and the Vocabulary–Digit Span difference score. Cut-off scores for suspecting negative response bias were proposed, and clinical case examples were used to illustrate these scores.