Assessment Tools

Question 1

CAI

Answer 1

Competency Assessment Instrument. Semistructured interview evaluating 13 functions.

Question 2

GCCT and GCCT-MSH

Answer 2

Georgia Court Competency Test.
21 items assessing 6 categories.
Critiqued for superficial assessment of Dusky standard of understanding. Many items assess only recognition.

Question 3

IFI and IFI-R

Answer 3

Interdisciplinary Fitness Interview
Semi-structured interview administered by MH pro and an ATTORNEY

Question 4

CAST-MR

Answer 4

Competence Assessment for Standing Trial for Defendants with MR

Question 5

FIT-R

Answer 5

Fitness Interview Test-Revised
Based on CAI, but added items re: understanding of trial procedures and mental status. Modeled to address Canadian law.

Question 6

MacCAT-CA

Answer 6

MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool-Criminal Adjudication
Aimed at assessing abstract knowledge and case-specific knowledge, and includes a component assessing educability.

Question 7

ECST-R

Answer 7

Evaluation of Competency to Stand Trial-Revised
Manual includes error rates, in attempt to address admissibility per Daubert.
Also screens for feigned incompetence.

Question 8

Tests for malingering incompetence

Answer 8

ILK (Inventory of Legal Knowledge), consists of T/F questions
TOMI (Test of Malingered Incompetence), looks at malingered cognitive deficits in competence to stand trial evals.

Question 9

CMR

Answer 9

Comprehension of Miranda Rights series: includes 4 components published as a set.

Question 10

COPINE

Answer 10

Combating Paedophile Information Networks in Europe
Scale to classify the severity of sexual exploitation images.

Question 11

CPORT

Answer 11

Child Pornography Offender Risk Tool
Designed to predict any sexual recidivism. Concerns that it could be misapplied in forensic settings due to low size of forensic study sample.

Question 12

the extent to which an instrument measures what it was intended to measure

Answer 12

validity

Question 13

the extent to which an instrument measures what it was intended to measure CONSISTENTLY

Answer 13

reliability

Question 14

a test’s ability to designate an individual with a dz as positive

Answer 14

sensitivity

Question 15

a test’s ability to designate an individual who does not have a dz as negative

Answer 15

specificity

Question 16

biggest problem with Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES-II)

Answer 16

no validity scales

Question 17

ID and measure risk factors. May include a combo of static and dynamic risk factors w/scoring incorporating one’s personal experience and empirical knowledge.

Answer 17

SPJ (structured professional judgment). Examples include the HCR-20 and PCL-R (Historical Clinical Risk 20 management scheme and Psychopathy Checklist Revised)

Question 18

instruments that combine a list of empirically derived static and/or dynamic risk factors and a statistical or algorithmic model to combine the risk scores into a total score

Answer 18

actuarial risk assessment instruments (ARAIs). Examples include the Static-99R, Violence Risk Appraisal Guide-Revised (VRAG-R), Level of Service Inventory-Revised, Stable-2007, and the Sex Offender Need Assessment Rating (SONAR).

Question 19

method combining actuarial knowledge from ARAIs with SPJs

Answer 19

clinical-idiographic method

Question 20

What factors should you consider before administering any test?

Answer 20

Has it been validated in the subject’s gender, age, race, and language?

Question 21

the deliberate fabrication or gross exaggeration of psychological/physical sx w/o any assumption about its goals

Answer 21

feigning

Question 22

effort-test performance that suggests the examinee is not applying his or her best effort to do well on a task. may be intentional or unintentional.

Answer 22

suspect effort

Question 23

describes situations where ppl do not answer questions truthfully for some reason

Answer 23

response bias

Question 24

assessments used to measure the credibility of self-reported emotional problems or impairments. Can help detect poor effort, underperformance, and exaggeration of sx.

Answer 24

symptom validity tests

Question 25

assessments used as an objective measure of a person’s cognitive ability and effort

Answer 25

performance validity tests

Question 26

questions that are part of the assessment to assess if the person’s report of symptoms is valid; can measure if the person is under- or overreporting sx as compared to other studied groups (e.g. genuine clinical pop, pt’s w/genuine extreme sxs, simulators, etc)

Answer 26

embedded validity indicators (EVIs)

Question 27

M-FAST

Answer 27

Miller Forensic Assessment of Symptoms Test.
- SCREENS for malingered psychiatric illness
- scores 6+ suggest need for further assessment
- may be administered by any MH clinician w/formal training in dx interviewing and forensic psychology/psychiatry

Question 28

SIRS-2

Answer 28

Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms-2nd Edition
- 172 Q, 45-min
- classifies evaluee into categories: genuine, indeterminate, probable, or definite feigning
- SIRS-2 has lower sensitivity than original SIRS, tending to incorrectly classify feigners into the indeterminate category

Question 29

SIMS

Answer 29

Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology
- 75-item T/F intended to SCREEN for malingering
- 5 domains: psychosis, low intelligence, neurologic impairment, affective d/os, amnestic d/os
- score 14+ requires further assessment

Question 30

MMPI

Answer 30

MN Multiphasic Personality Inventory
- 335-items on 52 scales
- 10 validity scales
. F: infrequent responses; responses infrequent in the gen pop
. Fp: infrequent psychopathology responses; infrequent in psych pops
. Fs: infrequent somatic responses; infrequent in medical pt pops
. L: uncommon virtues; attempts to ID underreporting of sx
. K: adjustment validity; uncommonly high level of psychological adjustment

Question 31

PAI-R

Answer 31

Personality Assessment Inventory-Revised
- 22 scales w/4 validity scales
- 4th grade reading level
- age 18-89

Question 32

a strategy where individuals who are feigning cognitive deficits miss even the most basic of questions

Answer 32

floor effect testing strategy
- Rey I Memory Test
- the “b” test

Question 33

forces evaluee to choose between two presented stimuli

Answer 33

forced-choice testing strategy
- ILK (Inventory of Legal Knowledge)
- “coin-in-the-hand test” (where ppl w/genuine amnesia perform perfectly)
- TOMM