Investigating factorial structure and reliability of the intuitive-rational information processing styles inventory in the university students population

Aim and People differ in how they process information. Assessment of such differencess is helpfull for understanding and predicting behavior in a variety of contexts. One of tht most important measure of individual differences in Information Processing is the Intuitive-Rational- Inventory، and the purpose of the present research is to investigate the psychometric properties of Persian version of this Inventory in university students’ population. Methods and Materials: First، the Inventory was translated into Farsi. Then، it was retranslated into English and compared with the original version to find and correct the gaps between the translated version and the original version. Finally، after the pilot study and resolving the mistakes، the final questionnaire was carried out for sample group consisting of 335 students studying in Humanities Sciences in Tabriz Payame Noor University. The data were analysed by using SPSS-18 softwar. In this study، Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted on the 40 items of the inventory، using a Principal Component Analysis، with Varimax Rotation. Cattell’s scree plot and Horn’s parallel analysis indicated the two factor solutions. Examination of communalities table revealed 18 items (nine each from the rational and experiential scales) with low internal consistency. These items were deleted and a second Principal Component factor analysis was conducted on the remaining 22 items. The resulte showed the two factors clearly. The first factor accounted for 18% and the second factor about 16% of the variance in the item set. As in the original scale، these factors were called Intuitive and rational Information Processing styles. To determine its validity item- total correlations and item discrimination power calculated. The reliability of the Intuitive-Rational Inventory was obtained by internal consistency (cronbach alpha) and test- retest methods. Cronbach''s Alpha coefficient for Intuitive and rational Information Processing styles was 0. 80 and 0. 77; and correlation coefficient after four weeks retest was 0. 90 and 0. 94، respectively. Cronbach''s Alpha and test- retest coefficient showed that reliability of factors is acceptable. Results at this study showed that Intuitive-Rational- Inventory has psychometric properties for utilizing in psychological research، clinical diagnostics and counseling.