Word-Recognition Validity Test
A short two-choice recognition task, ~4 minutes. It checks whether a set of memory results looks credible — not how strong your memory is. Administered by a clinician or researcher through an assigned assessment link.
How it works
Learning
You study a short list of common, concrete words shown one at a time. They are easy to remember, so genuine effort — even alongside real memory difficulty — recognises them well above chance.
Recognition
Each learned word is shown next to an unrelated, length-matched distractor. You choose the word you saw. With two options per item, pure guessing averages 50%.
Reading
Scoring significantly below chance is strong evidence of non-credible responding. A separate 45/50 cutoff is a published forced-choice convention, provided as provisional context. Indicative, not diagnostic.
Common questions
What does this test actually measure?
Performance validity, not memory ability. It asks a narrower question than a memory test: do these results reflect real effort? Because the target words are easy and each item has only two options, honest responders score very high — so a genuinely low or below-chance score is informative about effort, not memory strength.
What does "below chance" mean?
On a two-choice test, guessing alone averages 50% correct. Scoring far enough below 50% that it is statistically unlikely by chance (an exact one-tailed binomial test) is difficult to explain by any known memory disorder — it usually means the correct answer was recognised and deliberately avoided. That is the strongest single signal this task provides.
Is the 45/50 cutoff validated?
Not on this item bank. 45/50 (90%) is a published convention borrowed from commercial forced-choice validity tests. We report it as provisional context, clearly labelled, and it should be weighed alongside other indicators — never used in isolation to reach a conclusion.
How is the task administered?
Through the clinician and researcher portals: administration and scored reports go through an assigned assessment link, and there is no charge to the respondent. The sample report is available to clinician accounts.
Can it be repeated?
It can be repeated through a new assessment link, but recognition is easy to relearn, so the first administration is the most informative. Treat one run as descriptive of that session rather than a fixed conclusion.