The SIMS is a 75-item, true-or-false screening instrument that assesses both malingered psychopathology and neuropsychological symptoms.

Features and benefits

• Can be used as part of a battery of tests to provide convergent evidence of malingering.
• Recommended as part of a comprehensive approach to any evaluation in which alternative hypotheses for response patterns should be considered.
• Provides five scale domains—Psychosis, Low Intelligence, Neurologic Impairment, Affective Disorders, and Amnestic Disorders—as well as an overall score for probable malingering.
• Demonstrates sensitivity, specificity, and efficacy across both simulation and known-groups designs with honest responders, psychiatric patients, and clinical malingerers.
• Written at a fifth-grade reading level, the SIMS has demonstrated very good utility in identifying malingering across multiple studies.

Software portfolio available

The SIMS-SP provides an Interpretive Report based on either an on-screen administration of the SIMS or hand-entry of an individual’s item responses or scale raw scores.

• On-screen administration of the SIMS-SP is simple and convenient, with step-by-step instructions to guide the respondent through the process. The software provides the option for the respondent to view and/or hear the instructions as well as each of the 75 items.
• Provides an overall score for likely feigning, along with scale scores within five SIMS domains, and interpretive text that discusses the likelihood of feigning based on the total score and the five scale domain scores.

All SIMS materials, including the manual, have been translated into European Spanish and designed especially for Spanish-speaking clinicians and their clients. Normative data were collected primarily in Spain, with additional data collected in some Latin American countries. Certain test items and stimuli in this translation vary from the English version because of cultural and linguistic differences between the countries and their language. Learn more or order.

A comprehensive list of research articles related to the SIMS is available via Mendeley, a free reference management tool. After accessing the link, you will be prompted to create an account. A white paper describing how to use this research repository can be found here. Use of this resource is encouraged to facilitate research using the SIMS. Both the list and the white paper are available in the Resources tab above.