the detection of individuals who are malingering psychological dysfunction has proven to be a difficult task (rogers, 1997). this study was conducted to investigate whether response times on the personality assessment inventory could differentiate among asymptomatic controls (n = 15), clinically depressed individuals (n = 12), and a group instructed to malinger depression (n = 19). conventional responses and item response latencies were recorded for the negative impression, positive impression, depression - affective, depression — cognitive, and depression - physiological scales. discriminant function analyses revealed that conventional scores correctly classified 100% of the controls, 91.7% o f the depressed, and 73.7% of the malingerers. standardized response latencies correctly classified 73.3% of controls, 58.3% of depressed, and 84.2% of malingerers. classification rates for raw response latencies were 73.3%, 50.0%, and 78.9% respectively. finally, a new scale composed of items from the above subscales maxim ally discrim inating malingerers from depressed individuals could correctly classify 100% o f depressed and 91.7% of malingerers. these findings are consistent with other research (fekken & holden, 1994) suggesting that response latencies might provide meaningful information.