The identification of patterned responding in unmotivated test takers was investigated through the formation of a novel method. The proposed method relied on marginal proportions of answer choice options as well as the transitional proportions between responses on item pairs. A chi square analysis was used to determine the degree of significance of each participant's patterned responding. The method was compared to the existing person-fit statistic l[subscript z] (Drasgow, Levine & McLaughlin, 1987). Three publically available data sets--including a political science survey, an elementary school arithmetic scale and a general college course final exam--were used to test the occurrence of patterned responding and the ability of the proposed method to identify such unmotivated behavior. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]