Tests to Distinguish between “True” and “Faked” Maximum Muscle Strength Exertions *

Abstract

A problem within the industrial setting for many years, has been that of determining whether certain injured workers were truly incapable of performing physically exertive tasks or whether they were exhibiting less than genuine exertions. Experiments were performed to provide testing criteria for this distinction. Six subjects were assigned to a “Maximal” group, and were asked to exert 50%, 75%, and 100% of their true maximum strength. Six different subjects were assigned to the “Submaximal” group and were asked to subjectively set a submaximal level of exertion and exhibit 50%, 75%, and 100% of this level. The experimenters were “blind”, in that they did not know to which group each subject was assigned. The data was analyzed to test two hypotheses. First, it was suspected that the variability of the Submaximal group would be greater, in relation to the percentage level of strength, as compared with the Maximal group. Second, the slope of the strength formation curve was believed to correlate with the percentage of true strength exerted. Significant slope-strength correlations were found, whereas, the findings of the variability were less conclusive.