Rational Experiential Inventory (REI) Test

What is the Rational-Experiential Inventory (REI)?

The Rational-Experiential Inventory (REI) is a 40-item self-report questionnaire developed by psychologists Rosemarie Pacini and Seymour Epstein in 1999. It measures how strongly a person prefers two different styles of information processing: a rational, analytical style and an experiential, intuition-based style. Completing it takes about 5–10 minutes — for each statement, you indicate how true it is of yourself on a five-point scale.

The REI grew out of Epstein's Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory, which proposes that people process experience through two interacting systems: a rational system that works by deliberate reasoning, and an experiential system that learns from experience directly and quickly. Many of the rationality items were adapted from the well-known Need for Cognition Scale and paired with new items about trusting intuition.

Two independent thinking styles

Rationality describes the tendency to think deliberately: to analyze problems step by step, look for logical structure, and enjoy effortful thinking. Experientiality describes the tendency to rely on intuition: to trust gut feelings, first impressions, and judgments that arrive without step-by-step reasoning.

The crucial point is that these two styles are independent dimensions, not opposite ends of a single scale. Scoring high on rationality does not mean scoring low on experientiality — in the original validation sample, people high on both were common. This mirrors dual-process theories of cognition, including the System 1 / System 2 framing popularized by Daniel Kahneman.

The four REI subscales

Each of the two styles is further divided into ability and engagement, giving four subscores:

• Rational Ability (RA) — how capable you believe you are at logical thinking and solving demanding problems.
• Rational Engagement (RE) — how much you enjoy and feel motivated for effortful thinking.
• Experiential Ability (EA) — how much confidence you place in intuitive impressions and feelings.
• Experiential Engagement (EE) — how willing you are to rely on intuition and feelings when making judgments.

The two total scores are the averages of their respective subscales: Rationality combines RA and RE, while Experientiality combines EA and EE.

How the REI is scored

Every answer is scored from 1 (definitely not true of myself) to 5 (definitely true of myself). Nineteen of the forty statements are worded in the negative direction and are reverse-scored before averaging, so that a higher number always means more of the style being measured.

Your results report six numbers: an overall Rationality and Experientiality score, plus the four subscale scores. Each is the average of ten or twenty items on the 1–5 scale, so 3.0 sits at the midpoint of the response options.

How to interpret your scores

The table below shows how REI scores are commonly banded, based on norms from the original validation sample (N = 399). Most people land in the average band on most scales — the bands describe where you stand relative to that sample, not a good-or-bad verdict.

These bands are indicative reference points drawn from the authors' sample rather than clinical cutoffs. Scores can also fluctuate slightly between test sessions.

What different score combinations can suggest

Because the two styles are independent, your profile is better described as a combination than a single label. Research on the REI has mostly described these combinations in terms of how people tend to approach problems — not which profile is better:

• High rational, high experiential — two strong channels. People with this profile may switch between analysis and intuition depending on the situation; the original authors described them as having confident access to both systems.
• High rational, lower experiential — a predominantly analytical approach; decisions tend to be worked through step by step.
• Lower rational, high experiential — a predominantly intuitive approach; impressions and feelings carry significant weight.
• Average on both — the most common profile in norm samples; context tends to determine which style leads.

These descriptions are broad tendencies reported in self-report research. They do not measure thinking ability and should not be used to judge a person.

Scientific background

The REI was introduced in Pacini and Epstein (1999), "The Relation of Rational and Experiential Information Processing Styles to Personality, Basic Beliefs, and the Ratio-Bias Phenomenon", published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. In that work the scales showed good internal consistency and meaningful relationships with personality traits and beliefs, and the experiential system was linked to the ratio-bias effect — the tendency to favor a larger absolute number even when proportions are equal.

The questionnaire has since been used in hundreds of studies on judgment, decision making, and learning. Average scores differ somewhat between samples and countries, which is one reason the interpretation bands above should be read as approximate.

Limitations to keep in mind

The REI measures the thinking style you believe you use — a self-reported preference, not reasoning skill or intelligence. How people describe themselves can differ from how they actually process a specific problem, and answers can shift with mood and life stage.

This online version is provided for education and self-reflection. It is not a diagnostic tool and does not replace professional advice of any kind.

Frequently asked questions

Keep exploring

Related tests and reading on thinking and judgment:

• Daniel Kahneman and the science of fast and slow thinking
• The Stroop test: when automatic reading beats deliberate attention
• The Iowa Gambling Task: how intuition decides before awareness
• The trolley problem: intuition and reasoning in moral judgment
• Big Five personality test