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Objective: To examine the effect of the personality trait Need for Cognition (NFC) on memory to determine if NFC moderates memory through positive effort. Method: Participants included 174 undergraduate students (74.1% female, Mage = 20.10, SD = 1.51). Measures included the 18-item Need for Cognition Questionnaire, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III, and the Wechsler Memory Scale-III (WMS-III). Results: NFC moderated the relationship between Logical Memory I (LM I) and Full Scale IQ (FSIQ). LM I (B = 1.47, SE = 0.31, p < 0.001), NFC (B = 0.41, SE = 0.09, p < 0.001), and their interaction (B = 0.09, SE = 0.04, p = 0.017), accounted for 28% of the variance in FSIQ (F(3, 159) = 20.77, p < 0.001). NFC did not moderate the relationship between Logical Memory II (LM II) and FSIQ. NFC was significantly correlated with FSIQ (r = 0.41, p < 0.001), LM I (r = 0.26, p < 0.001), LM II (r = 0.26, p < 0.001), and Spatial Span (r = 0.17, p = 0.035), but was not related to other aspects of memory. Conclusions: High NFC individuals may encode more information when initially learning a story due to higher interest in the story context. This appears to improve initial learning of the story but not later recall. Although NFC was correlated with Spatial Span and both immediate and delayed recall for LM, NFC was not related to WMS-III Faces, Family Pictures, or Verbal Paired Associates, which suggests NFC may affect learning through increased test engagement or motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We evaluated reaction time (RT) as a mediator of the relation between the trait Need for Cognition (NFC) and Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM). Methods: 174 undergraduate students (M = 20 years old, SD = 1.5; 74.1% female) completed the 18 item NFC questionnaire and RAPM as part of a larger battery. RAPM mean RT (RMRT) was calculated in msec. Results: Overall total effect between NFC and RAPM total score was significant [F(2,146) = 44.04; p < 0.001; r2 = 0.38; 95% CI = 0.05, 0.18] when not accounting for the effect of the mediator for RT. RMRT demonstrated a significant indirect effect on RAPM total score [B = 0.11; t(148) = 4.34; p < 0.001; 95% CI = 0.09, 0.24]. Results indicate that the direct effect of NFC and RAPM was significant [B = 0.23; t(148) = 3.42; p < 0.001; 95% CI = 0.03, 0.19] when controlling for the mediator of RT, which shows a partially mediated effect. Conclusions: RT partially mediates the relationship between NFC and RAPM performance. This is the first demonstration that high NFC improves performance on fluid intelligence tests at least partly by high NFC individuals persevering longer on test items. As NFC and RAPM are still correlated after including RT as a mediator, test persistence is not solely responsible for this direct relationship. Future research needs to determine additional variables that account for the relation between NFC and RAPM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]