TOMM
Definition
Test of Memory Malingering; 50-item forced-choice visual recognition task; Trial 2 score below 45/50 indicates performance invalidity; most widely validated memory PVT.
- Full name
- Test of Memory Malingering
- Format
- 50-item forced-choice visual recognition
- Cutoff
- Trial 2 score below 45/50 flags invalid performance
- Status
- Most widely validated memory performance validity test
Common questions
How does a forced-choice format detect malingering?+
Chance-level guessing on a forced-choice recognition task still produces roughly half correct answers, so a genuine memory-impaired person tends to score well above chance while someone deliberately underperforming often scores suspiciously near or below chance, a pattern the TOMM is built to catch.
Does a failed TOMM automatically mean the person is malingering?+
No. A single failed performance validity test is evidence of invalid effort, not proof of intentional malingering, and clinicians interpret it alongside the broader evaluation, other PVTs, and clinical context before reaching that conclusion.
Why is Trial 2, not Trial 1, used as the primary cutoff?+
Trial 2 follows a learning trial, so genuine performance typically improves or stays high by Trial 2, making a low score at that stage a stronger indicator of invalid effort than a low first-trial score, which could reflect normal initial unfamiliarity.
Related terms
- Below-Chance Performance
- Performance on a two-alternative forced-choice task below the 50% chance level; statistically impossible through genuine impairment; meets SSI Criteria Group A for...
- Factitious Disorder
- Intentional production of symptoms motivated by psychological need to assume the sick role, without external incentive; distinct from malingering in motivation; not...
- M-FAST
- Miller Forensic Assessment of Symptoms Test; 25-item brief screen for feigned psychopathology; designed for jail and pretrial settings where full SIRS-2 is...
- MAL (Malingering Index)
- PAI configuration-based supplementary index developed for forensic populations to detect feigned psychopathology; used alongside NIM and clinical scales.
- Malingering
- Intentional production of false or grossly exaggerated symptoms motivated by external incentives; a DSM-5 V-code (not a mental disorder) applicable when incentive...
- Performance Validity Test (PVT)
- Any test designed to detect inadequate effort or deliberate underperformance in cognitive assessment; TOMM is the leading example for memory; embedded PVTs...
- Response Style
- The systematic approach an individual uses in reporting symptoms and behaviour during assessment; includes genuine, amplification, fabrication, defensiveness, and random responding.
- Rogers Detection of Deception Model
- Multi-source, hypothesis-testing framework for response-style assessment; requires convergent evidence from at least two data sources and explicit consideration of alternative hypotheses before...
- SIRS-2
- Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms, Second Edition; 172-item structured interview with eight primary scales for detecting feigned psychiatric symptoms; yields genuine, indeterminate,...
- Slick-Sherman-Iverson Criteria
- 1999 classification framework for Malingered Neurocognitive Dysfunction; four levels (Definite, Probable, Possible, Not MND) based on convergent evidence criteria.
- Symptom Amplification
- Exaggeration of genuine symptoms beyond their actual severity; common and does not automatically meet the malingering threshold; requires integration with all assessment...