You have full access to this open access chapter, Download reference work entry PDF
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Definition
A false positive occurs when an examinee’s performance on a test incorrectly identifies the examinee as having the condition of interest (COI) being evaluated when in fact the examinee does not actually have the COI. The false-positive rate for a test may vary for different populations of interest when the same cutoff score is used to determine the presence of a COI. For example, using the standard, recommended cutoff score on a performance validity test (PVT) for determining credible verses non-credible levels of performance is more likely to result in a higher false-positive identification rate for individuals who have either an intellectual disability or dementia (e.g., Dean et al. 2008, 2009) compared to a neurocognitively intact sample. A false positive is also more likely to occur when a test uses a relatively lower cutoff score for identifying an individual as having the COI versus a higher cutoff score. A relatively lower cutoff score maximizes sensitivity for detecting the COI, but increases the rate of false-positive identification (i.e., decreases a test’s specificity).
Cross-References
References
Dean, A. C., Victor, T. L., Boone, K. B., & Arnold, G. (2008). The relationship of IQ to effort test performance. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 22(4), 705–722. doi:10.1080/13854040701440493.
Dean, A. C., Victor, T. L., Boone, K. B., Philpott, L. M., & Hess, R. A. (2009). Dementia and effort test performance. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 23(1), 133–152. doi:10.1080/13854040701819050s.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Black, J.A. (2017). False Positive. In: Kreutzer, J., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56782-2_1197-3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56782-2_1197-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-56782-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-56782-2
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences