Cognitive Failures Questionnaire

{{Short description|Self-report inventory of cognitive slippage}}

{{technical|date=July 2023}}

The Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) is a self-report inventory of cognitive slippage in the form of failures in everyday actions, perceptions and attention, and memory.{{Cite journal |last1=Yates |first1=Gregory C. R. |last2=Hannell |first2=Glynis |last3=Lippett |first3=R. Mark |date=February 1985 |title=Cognitive slippage, test anxiety, and responses in a group testing situation |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2044-8279.1985.tb02603.x |journal=British Journal of Educational Psychology |language=en |volume=55 |issue=1 |pages=28–33 |doi=10.1111/j.2044-8279.1985.tb02603.x|pmid=3970821 |url-access=subscription }} It was developed by Donald Broadbent and others in 1982 at the University of Oxford's Department of Experimental Psychology.{{Cite journal |last1=Broadbent |first1=D. E. |author-link=Donald Broadbent |last2=Cooper |first2=P. F. |last3=FitzGerald |first3=P. |last4=Parkes |first4=K. R. |date=February 1982 |title=The Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) and its correlates |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2044-8260.1982.tb01421.x |journal=British Journal of Clinical Psychology |language=en |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=1–16 |doi=10.1111/j.2044-8260.1982.tb01421.x |pmid=7126941 |issn=0144-6657|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Berry |first=Dianne C. |date=1995 |title=Donald Broadbent and applied cognitive psychology |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/acp.2350090702 |journal=Applied Cognitive Psychology |language=en |volume=9 |issue=7 |pages=S1–S4 |doi=10.1002/acp.2350090702|url-access=subscription }} The authors originally intended for the questionnaire to measure three distinct factors: perception, memory, and motor function. Subsequent analysis has found four distinct factors measured, which partially overlap with the intended factors.{{Cite journal |last1=Wallace |first1=J. Craig |last2=Kass |first2=Steven J. |last3=Stanny |first3=Claudia J. |date=July 2002 |title=The Cognitive Failures Questionnaire Revisited: Dimensions and Correlates |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00221300209602098 |journal=The Journal of General Psychology |language=en |volume=129 |issue=3 |pages=238–256 |doi=10.1080/00221300209602098 |pmid=12224809 |issn=0022-1309|url-access=subscription }}

One study found that it is correlated with measures of neuroticism, including as measured by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, thus supporting the so-called mental-noise hypothesis of neuroticism.{{Cite journal |vauthors=Flehmig HC, Steinborn M, Langner R, Westhoff K |year=2007 |title=Neuroticism and the mental noise hypothesis: Relationships to lapses of attention and slips of action in everyday life |url=http://journaldatabase.info/articles/neuroticism_mental_noise_hypothesis.html |journal=Psychology Science |volume=49 |issue=4 |pages=343–360 |s2cid=49325040}}