Weekly Report 33: Rey's 15 Item Test

In one of my previous evidence of learning reports, I mentioned how I would write an assessment on Rey’s Fifteen Item Test, which is what I plan on doing today. The Fifteen Item Test (FIT), is used to identify feigned memory impairment and evaluate the validity of symptoms. In other words, the test is meant to recognize malingering. According to Psychology Today, “Malingering is the purposeful production of falsely or grossly exaggerated complaints with the goal of receiving a reward.” Tests such as the FIT have become necessary because malingering has become a common issue in the field of psychology and psychiatry.

So how does it work? The FIT assesses an individual’s short term memory, or in other words is a measure of immediate span of apprehension. Rey’s Fifteen Item Test consists of 15 different items which are arranged in 3 columns and 5 rows. When the test begins, the evaluee is informed that there are 15 distinct items on the test that need to be memorized during a 10 second exposure period and that they will be expected to copy them onto a blank piece of paper immediately. “Although it is presented as a difficult task, it is actually quite simple because there is redundancy among items that reduces the amount of information to be remembered. Thus, the MFIT relies upon the floor effect strategy for detecting malingering (Rogers et al., 1993), which assumes the naive malingerer will be misled into overplaying their role and choose to perform poorly on this very simple task.”

The test is nearly impossible to mess up on accidentally even if the individual suffers from severe amnesia because short term memory is usually well preserved. As a result, malingerers are easily caught because of their tendency to exaggerate cognitive difficulties and mental illness symptoms. When discussing this with Dr. Dunn, he provided me with an example of what he has seen malingerers do on the Rey's Test by mentioning how one individual used a plus sign, minus sign and equal sign, and shapes that weren't on the test, along with animals.

~Shrinidhi Joshi

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