Need for Cognition: the comparative analysis of different researches and psycho-diagnostic approaches

The article analyzes national and foreign approaches to study and diagnostics of need for cognition. It discusses the results of researches demonstrating the relevance of diagnostics of students’ needs for cognition in order to predict their academic achievements at school. The article also analyzes the relationship between the students’ needs for cognition with their cognitive abilities. It gives consideration to the research perspectives of the need for cognition as depending on the specificity of child’s individual family background. The article specifies results of primary testing the online version of the scale of needs for cognition (Cacioppo et al. (2013) carried out in Russia and examines the psychometric properties of its original online version with the existing blank version of this tool. The annex contains the Russian translation of Cacioppo’s scale made by the author of the article.