The performance of 23 patients with moderate–severe traumatic
brain injury on the California Verbal Learning Test, Second Edition
(CVLT-II; Delis et al., 2000) was compared with
that of 23 matched healthy controls to determine whether recall
discriminability indices, which take into account both correct target
recall and intrusive errors, would provide better diagnostic
classification than traditional variables that are based exclusively on
correct recall. Patients with traumatic brain injury recalled fewer
correct words, and also made more intrusive errors, on CVLT-II short and
long delay, free and cued recall trials (p < .02 for all
variables after Stepdown Bonferroni correction). However, recall
discriminability indices yielded a classification of clinical
versus control participants (72%) that was not significantly
different from one based on traditional variables (74%). We conclude that
CVLT-II recall discriminability indices do not routinely provide an
advantage over traditional variables in patients with traumatic brain
injury. (JINS, 2007, 13, 354–358.)