"If individuals could be thought of as magnets, information in daily life as fields of iron filings, and the acquisition, scrutiny, and retention of this information as the movement of the filings toward the magnets, then interindividual variations in need for cognition would be the strength of the magnetic fields."
– Dispositional Differences in Cognitive Motivation [1]
Highlights of the NCS:
- Straightforward survey designed to measure an individual’s tendency to engage in and enjoy thinking (the individual’s level of need for cognition)
- Short, 18-question survey; easy to administer and easy to score
Uses of the NCS:
- Can be administered by itself so students can understand their own cognitive needs (as a feedback tool in a psychology class, for instance) or to better understand their collective intellectual character
- Can be combined with other demographic surveys (e.g., the CIRP) to examine relationships between the need for cognition and student characteristics
- Can be administered as a pre- and post-test around a curricular or co-curricular activity to study the effects of that particular activity on a person’s need for cognition
Liberal Arts Outcomes and the NCS:
- Ideal for looking at thinking behaviors such as inclination to inquire and effective reasoning and problem solving. A person’s cognitive motivation and need likely impacts other liberal arts outcomes, such as intercultural effectiveness and integration of learning, among others
- Rationale of the NCS captures the "intellectual essence" of a liberal arts education as defined by the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts
- Because the NCS is so easy to administer and straightforward to score, administrators might be tempted to use the test without thoughtful regard to the outcomes in question
- Using quantitative instruments alone cannot provide the rich data needed to truly assess the overall effectiveness of the liberal arts experience—a variety of other quantitative instruments along with targeted qualitative assessment would provide the best overall picture of the success of liberal arts educational practices
- Cacioppo, J.T., Petty, R.E., Feinstein, J., and Jarvis, B. (1996). Dispositional differences in cognitive motivation: The life and times of individuals varying in need for cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 119, 197-253.
Read the full article HERE.
