Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) Test

People who notice frequent slips in attention, memory, or everyday control may use the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) Test to organize those experiences into a clearer profile. This cognitive failures test is intended for personal reflection by people who want to examine recurring mistakes, forgetfulness, missed cues, or impulsive reactions in ordinary routines. The profile can help you see whether reported slips cluster around remembering, noticing, or managing actions.

What This Assessment Explores

Ordinary routines reveal everyday cognitive lapses through situations involving reading, names, errands, directions, word-finding, task switching, decisions, and reactions. The result describes how often these slips are reported in ordinary routines, not performance on a laboratory task.

The four displayed dimensions are:

• Action Failures (0-36) assesses a tendency toward disorganization, difficulties in decision-making, and impaired behavioral control: Low 0-12, Moderate 13-24, High 25-36.
• Memory Errors (0-28) assesses the frequency of memory-related lapses, including forgetfulness and failures in encoding, storage, and retrieval: Low 0-9, Moderate 10-18, High 19-28.
• Attention Errors (0-36) assesses inattentiveness, concentration lapses, and poorer voluntary (effortful) attention: Low 0-12, Moderate 13-24, High 25-36.
• Cognitive Failures (0-100) assesses the overall level of failures in regulating cognitive processes such as attention, memory, and action control: Low 0-33, Moderate 34-66, High 67-100.

Methodology and Scientific Basis

Each item asks how often a recognizable lapse occurs, using a five-level response from Very often to Never. Examples cover missed information, forgotten intentions, unnoticed cues, motor slips, word-finding, and changes in behavior. As an online cognitive assessment, it measures perceived everyday functioning, so results depend on recall, interpretation, and candid self-report.

The structure is conceptually consistent with the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) introduced by Broadbent and colleagues. Wallace, Kass, and Stanny examined its dimensions and correlates, while Goodman and colleagues revisited factor structure and construct validity. These sources provide evidence about the published instrument rather than validating this online scoring, which is not established as a standardized or validated version of the published CFQ.

For interpretation, higher displayed scores indicate greater problems or failures in the relevant dimension, while lower displayed scores indicate better functioning. The displayed bands organize results, but they do not establish a diagnosis. Stress, fatigue, mood, environment, and response bias can affect answers, so the most useful reading is to consider recurring situations and their impact on daily functioning.