Just the Tip of the Iceberg: a Brief Report of the Tip-of-the-Tongue Score as an Embedded Validity Indicator for the Children's Auditory and Visual Naming Tests.

OBJECTIVE

Explore the tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) scores from the Children's Auditory and Visual Naming Tests (cANT, cVNT) as embedded validity indicators (EVIs).

METHOD: A retrospective design of 98 consecutively referred youth aged 6-15 years (M = 11.28, SD = 2.80) that completed neuropsychological evaluation at a tertiary-care academic medical center.

RESULTS

Invalid performance (i.e., ≥2 failed PVTs) occurred in 12.2% of the sample, with base rates of failure on individual PVTs ranging from 1.0% to 30.6%. Area under the curve (AUC) showed statistical significance for the auditory (AUC = 0.811, p = .004) but not the visual TOT. Logistic regression indicated the combination of both TOT scores with other PVTs increased correct identification of invalid performance to 85.7% versus 75% without TOT scores.

CONCLUSION

The utility of the TOT as a language-based EVI is one of many potential advantages of the cANT and cVNT compared to other confrontation naming tests. To confirm this, future studies with more diverse populations are warranted.