Assessing Reading Ability for Psychological Testing in Forensic Assessments: An Investigation with the WRAT-4 and MMPI-2-RF

Abstract

This study examined the association between two measures of WRAT-4 reading ability—Word Reading and Sentence Comprehension—and two well-validated measures of inconsistent responding—MMPI-2-RF Variable Response Inconsistency (VRIN-r) and True Response Inconsistency (TRIN-r) among 136 forensic inpatients (90 men, 46 women). It was hypothesized that WRAT-4 Sentence Comprehension would demonstrate stronger associations with VRIN-r than WRAT-4 Word Reading. It was also hypothesized that there may be a minimal association between Sentence Comprehension and TRIN-r. Although WRAT-4 Word Reading was not significantly correlated with VRIN-r (r_s = −.17, p = .07) or TRIN-r (r_s = −.10, p = .31), Sentence Comprehension was significantly correlated with VRIN-r (r_s = −.27, p = .01). A hierarchical regression predicting VRIN-r scores indicated that WRAT-4 Sentence Comprehension significantly accounted for an additional 5.4% of the variance in VRIN-r scores after accounting for self-reported education level and Word Reading (p = .03). However, Word Reading did not significantly account for any additional variance in VRIN-r after accounting for Education and Sentence Comprehension (incremental R² = .001, p = .74). These results suggest that Sentence Comprehension (rather than Word Reading) should be assessed prior to administering psychological testing, especially in forensic settings.