The factor structure of the short need for cognition scale

• Author: Ana-Maria Cazan
• Position: Transilvania University of Brasov
• Pages: 19-28

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 9 (58) No. 1 - 2016

THE FACTOR STRUCTURE OF THE

SHORT NEED FOR COGNITION SCALE

Ana-Maria CAZAN1

Abstract: The aims of this research were to assess the psychometric

properties of the Need for Cognition Scale, and to test its factor structure.

Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were used. The results

suggest that the Need for Cognition Scale – the short form has good

psychometric properties after its translation into Romanian. Alfa Cronbach

coefficients showed high reliability and confirmatory factor analysis

confirmed the original unidimensional structure of the scale. The present

study highlighted the consistency and the validity of the scale, which is an

argument for its future use in Romanian settings.

Key words: confirmatory factor analysis, construct validity, individual

differences, need for cognition.

1. Introduction

Need for cognition refers to individuals’ tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful

cognitive endeavours (Cacioppo, Petty, & Kao, 1984). The term ‘need for cognition’ was

first used by Cohen, being defined as the need to structure relevant situations in

meaningful, integrated ways, or the need to understand and make the experiential world

reasonable (Cohen, Stotland, & Wolfe, 1955). The need for cognition describes individual

differences in cognitive motivation, being also connected with how individuals process

information (Dickhäuser, Reinhard, Diener, & Bertrams, 2009). Individuals with high

need for cognition are better at remembering complex information, show a stronger need

to search for new and complex information than individuals with low need for cognition,

make judgments after an accurate balancing of all specific information, need strong

arguments in order to be persuaded, and prefer complex to simple tasks (Cacioppo &

Petty, 1982; Dickhäuser et al., 2009). Individuals with low need for cognition tend to use

peripheral cues, such as source characteristics (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986), have a weaker

tendency to engage in effortful cognitive endeavours, preferring simple to complex tasks

(Cacioppo, Petty, Feinstein, & Jarvis, 1996).

Cacioppo and Petty (1982) defined the need for cognition as a stable individual

difference and focused on the self-reward potential of cognitive activity, creating a scale

to measure the need for cognition. The first version of the scale was a one-dominant

factor scale with 34 items (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982); in the second version, the scale was

reduced to 18 items and a single dominant factor (Cacioppo et al., 1984). The

unidimensional model was supported by other authors (Hevey, Thomas, Pertl, Maher,

1 Transilvania University of Braşov, ana.cazan@unitbv.ro.