Level N required.
Like The Dot Counting Test (DCT), The b Test assesses test-taking effort in individuals ages 17 and older. Unlike the DCT, The b Test offers entirely new and unfamiliar stimuli, making it ideal for forensic use.
The b Test is a letter-recognition and discrimination task. It asks the examinee to circle, as quickly as possible, all the b’s that appear on each page of the Stimulus Booklet. Error Totals, plus time required to complete the task, are used to calculate an Effort Index Score.
Finding the b’s among the distracters is an easy task, even for people with brain injury or neurological disease. However, it appears more difficult than it is. The distracters (d’s and q’s, some with rotated stems) look quite similar to b’s. And on each successive page of the Stimulus Booklet, the letters grow smaller, suggesting increased difficulty.
Because The b Test assesses “overlearned” skills, individuals with cerebral dysfunction who try hard on the task will not be mistakenly classified as noncooperative. Similarly, examinees who are feigning symptoms may be tempted to display their “impairment,” in which case the test will flag their effort as suspect.
The b Test has several advantages over memory-based effort tests. Reading and letter recognition skills are usually preserved in patients with memory impairment. Thus, The b Test is less likely than memory-based effort tests to mistakenly find “suspect effort” in patients with actual memory disorders. Also, because people feign cognitive impairment selectively, The b Test is more likely than memory-based effort tests to detect faked deficits in letter recognition.
The b Test performance of 91 “suspect effort” patients (previously identified by rigorous inclusion and exclusion criteria) was compared to that of patients in six “normal effort” diagnostic groups: Depression, Schizophrenia, Head Injury, Stroke, Learning Disability, and Nonclinical. Results verified the ability of The b Test to discriminate among patients based on their effort status.
In interpreting test scores, you can select a cutoff that minimizes false positives while maintaining adequate sensitivity to “suspect effort.” Simply compare the patient’s performance to that of a similar reference group.
Like the DCT, The b Test is useful in any setting where examinees have external incentives to fabricate or exaggerate cognitive problems—personal injury litigation, disability evaluations, and criminal cases, for example. However, it need not be limited to these applications. There is increasing consensus among psychologists that effort tests should be a standard component of assessment practice.
Administered in less than 15 minutes, The b Test is a quick, cost-effective way to routinely assess test-taking effort.
WPS Test Security Position Statement
A psychologist shall not reproduce or describe in public or in publications subject to general public distribution any psychological tests or other assessment devices, the value of which depends in whole or in part on the naivete of the subject, in ways that might invalidate the techniques; and shall limit access to such tests or devices to persons with professional interests who will safeguard their use.
分數
具明確判定的臨界分數
施測時間
5–15 分鐘
適用年齡
17 歲以上
出版年份
2002
使用資格
需具備 N 級資格
工具介紹
如同點數計數測驗（Dot Counting Test, DCT），b 測驗用於評估 17 歲以上個體的測驗作答努力程度。然而，不同於 DCT，b 測驗採用全新且不熟悉的刺激材料，因此特別適合法務（forensic）應用。
b 測驗是一項字母辨識與區辨任務。受測者需在刺激冊的每一頁中，盡可能快速地圈出所有字母 b。
測驗會根據：
來計算「努力指數分數（Effort Index Score）」。
測驗特點
在干擾字母中找出 b 是一項簡單任務，即使對於腦傷或神經疾病患者亦然。然而，測驗設計讓任務看起來比實際更困難：
- 干擾字母（如 d、q，以及旋轉字幹的字母）與 b 外觀相似
- 隨著頁數增加，字體逐漸變小，營造難度提升的感覺
測驗優勢
由於 b 測驗評估的是「過度學習（overlearned）」技能：
- 真正有腦功能障礙但努力作答的個體，不會被誤判為不合作
- 偽裝症狀的受測者可能刻意表現障礙，反而會被測驗識別為「可疑努力」
相較記憶型努力測驗的優勢
- 閱讀與字母辨識能力通常在記憶障礙患者中仍保留
- 因此較不會誤將真正有記憶問題的患者判定為作答可疑
- 由於部分人會選擇性偽裝認知缺損，b 測驗更容易辨識偽造的字母辨識障礙
研究支持
研究比較了：
與
- 六類「正常努力」群體（憂鬱症、思覺失調、頭部外傷、中風、學習障礙及一般族群）
結果證實 b 測驗能有效區分不同努力程度的個體。
分數解讀
在解讀結果時，可選擇不同臨界值：
並可將受測者表現與相似參考群體比較。
應用場景
與 DCT 類似，b 測驗適用於以下情境：
亦適用於一般心理評估情境。現今心理學界普遍認為，「努力測驗」應成為評估流程的標準項目之一。
總結
b 測驗可在 15 分鐘內完成，是一種快速且具成本效益的工具，可常規評估受測者的作答努力程度。
WPS 測驗安全聲明
心理學家不得在公開場合或出版物中複製或詳細描述任何心理測驗或評估工具（若其效度部分依賴受試者的不熟悉性），以免影響測驗效度；並應僅將此類工具提供給具專業背景且能妥善使用之人士。
