Need for Cognition: Factor Structure and Gender Differences among Students

Need for cognition scale (NCS) is an instrument for assessing individual’s interest to engage in complex thinking activities and consists both long and short forms. The short form of this scale with 18 items has been used in various researches around the world. The objective of this research was to obtain the factor structure of the Persian version of NCS (short form) and study of gender differences in need for cognition among Iranian students. Participants were 662 girls and 708 boys studied in third grade of the public high school in Tehran, who were selected by random cluster sampling.Exploratory factor analysis of the items through principle component and varimax rotation showed a two factor measurement model. On the basis of previous studies and confirmatory analysis result, three models, one factor, two factors and one factor with correlated errors were proposed as competing models. The result of confirmatory factor analyses through 8.54 lisrel software showed that among three assumed models, the one-factor structure has better fit index. Additionally the results revealed the significant difference between the need for cognition of female and male so that the girls scored higher than boys.