Unfortunately, from what I've seen in various threads, about the only way to tell for sure if it's causing the problems is to take it off, clean it, then reinstall it to see if the problem goes away. I've not had one apart myself to see how the electrical traces on it's circuit board are arranged, but being an electrical switch, it might be possible to following the traces on the board to determine which contacts should show continuity depending on what position the switch is in.
From some of the pictures of mode switches I've seen here in various threads, it looks like the switches sometimes just get built up with road grime and such, which then causes short circuits between adjacent contacts (which results in the erratic light displays on the dash board and the trans going into gears other than the ones that are currently selected).