Wisconsin Experience Questionnaire

Long Form

Scale	Item
TR*	Sometimes I can't tell if something really happened or if I just imagined it.
TR*	Sometimes I slip into a state where I am only aware of myself, and oblivious to everything else.
TR*	Once in a while, just as I'm about to tell someone something that has happened, I suddenly think, "Wait, did that really happen?" and after a few moments I realize it must have been a dream I've had, because it never actually happened.
TR*	At times I lose track of where I am.
TR*	Sometimes people have to call my name several times before I can even hear them.
NI*	Sometimes when I am doing something, like typing or playing the piano, my mind will start to wander to other things and I will almost forget that I am still doing the activity.
NI*	It sometimes seems like the situation is in control of me, instead of me being in control of the situation.
NI*	There are times when I do something without thinking about it beforehand, and afterwards I'm surprised that I've done it.
NI*	My mind often seems to resist thinking about or attending to what I want it to do.
NI*	Sometimes when somebody asks me for my opinion, I'll give a reply without thinking and later have to determine whether I really meant what I said.
AI	When I'm in the company of people who are older than I, I sometimes feel like a small child again.
AI	I have a tendency to idealize people who appear to be powerful and successful.
AI	If I were in an experiment, I would try very hard to please the experimenter.
AI	I wanted good grades in school, but in addition my academic work had a strong personal element -- that is, I didn't want to disappoint or embarrass my teachers.
AI	I usually do everything I can to keep people happy.
DR*	There are times when I feel like I'm walking around in a haze, not totally awake.
DR*	Often, even though I haven't worked very hard, I feel that my mental energies are low.
DR	I'm often quite sleepy and either take a nap, or would like to, during the day.
DR	Sometimes I find it impossible to stay awake, even if it's important that I do so.
DR	I'm usually quite alert during waking hours and don't get sleepy until I go to bed at night.
RE*	When I get tense, or anxious, I find it difficult to calm myself down.
RE*	I often have trouble shutting off my mind and getting relaxed so I can fall asleep.
RE	It's usually easy for me to relax both my mind and body.
RE	If I just stop what I'm doing and think about relaxing, I relax.¹
RE	When something is on my mind that is getting me upset, I am able to set it aside for a while until I calm down.
IM*	Once in a while, usually when I'm tired, I think that someone's just said something to me, but when I look around, there's no one there.
IM*	There have been times when I thought for sure that I saw something, but it turned out not to be actually there. Maybe it was a mirage or a kind of hallucination, but I still remember seeing it.
IM*	Sometimes I can picture myself doing something so vividly that I can actually feel the sensations that go on with the image.
IM	When I'm watching a food commercial on TV, like a pizza ad, I sometimes can actually smell the food.
IM	If I think about some type of food, like a lemon or some fudge, I can really taste it.
AB*	Sometimes I find people so fascinating, that I stare at them for long periods of time, until my companions shake me out of it.
AB*	I can become totally engrossed in nothing at all -- like staring out into space.
AB*	I sometimes concentrate on only what I feel or think, and ignore everything else around me.
AB	When I'm listening to certain pieces of music, I get fully involved, so I'm not aware of other sounds around me.
AB	It's hard for me to pay attention to things around me when I'm focusing on one particular task.
AU*	Bizarre or fantastic thoughts that seem to be from old dreams, or from my unconscious run through my mind at times without my trying at all to think about them.
AU*	Sometimes when I'm daydreaming, or even just thinking about nothing in particular, I realize I've been thinking really illogical thoughts, so that I can't make any sense out of what I was just thinking a few seconds before.
AU*	Sometimes a thought will come to my mind that seems so totally foreign that I wonder what could have possibly made me think of it.
AU*	Without my seeming to direct my thoughts, they sometimes turn to my childhood or to some emotional experience from my past.
AU*	I have often caught myself flirting with someone, or acting as if I was romantically interested in them, even though I hadn't even consciously realized at all that I was attracted to him (or her), but I really was.

Subscales of the Wisconsin Experience Questionnaire

TR = Trance	NI = Nonconscious Involvement
AI = Archaic Involvement	DR = Drowsiness
RE = Relaxation	IM = Vividness of Imagery
AB = Absorption	AU = Access to the Unconscious

*Items loading on the "First Factor" scale described by Kihlstrom et al. (1989). Return.
¹Due to a typographical error in Kihlstrom et al. (1989), Table 3 assigned this item to the DR scale instead of the RE scale. Return.

Summary of Preliminary Factor Analyses

TR - Trance Items with High Principal Factor Loadings
Factor Loading	Endorsement Rate	Item
0.36	0.87	Sometimes I do things without even thinking.
0.47	0.62	Sometimes I will think or do something which is logically inconsistent with something else, but that doesn't bother me.
0.47	0.79	When I read a good book or watch a good play, I can get so involved in the story, that I'm not aware of time or my surroundings. The story seems so real to me that I become a part of it.
0.35	0.80	Sometimes situations don't seem real.
-.41	0.37	I'm always keenly aware of my surroundings.
0.40	0.56	I sometimes can spend a long time concentrating all of my attention on some trivial thing, such as playing with my gum or picking my fingers.
0.39*	0.44	Once in a while, just as I'm about to tell someone something that has happened, I suddenly think, "Wait, did that really happen?" and after a few moments I realize it must have been a dream I've had, because it never actually happened.
0.50	0.42	I can wander off into my own thoughts sometimes and then later have trouble deciding whether some of what I was thinking about was fact or imagination.
0.37	0.79	Sometimes when I try to remember what I was thinking or doing, I can't remember at all.
0.36	0.92	Sometimes when listening to a teacher in a classroom, or some other speaker, I all of a sudden realize I've been daydreaming, and I haven't heard a word of what the speaker has said, and I wonder how long I've been gone.
0.55	0.83	At times I lose track of what I am thinking or doing, even though I continue thinking and doing something.
0.52	0.35	I am able to lose my self-awareness and feel a total lack of self-consciousness even if I know someone is watching me.
0.51*	0.65	Sometimes I slip into a state where I am only aware of myself, and oblivious to everything else.
0.47*	0.44	At times I lose track of where I am.
0.44	0.56	When performing an activity, the world sometimes seems to be cut off from me, and all that there is to think about is what I am doing.
0.36	0.84	At times I lose track of what time it is.
0.39	0.93	What seems like minutes are actually hours that have gone by when I've been working hard at something.
0.44*	0.56	Sometimes people have to call my name several times before I even hear them.
0.48	0.53	Sometimes I get so involved in what I am doing that I don't see myself as separate from that activity.
0.37	0.59	Sometimes I've gotten so involved in a TV program that it hasn't occurred to me that it wasn't a very good show. I didn't make that judgment until after I finished watching.
0.54	0.25	Sometimes I get so involved in my daydreams, images, and other fantasies that I forget what is real.
0.57*	0.38	Sometimes I can't tell if something really happened or if I just imagined it.
0.44	0.19	Sometimes I can't tell if something is really happening or if I'm daydreaming.
0.47	0.59	Sometimes when I remember something especially nice or fun (a concert, a game, etc.), it seems like I'm actually there again.
0.48	0.26	Sometimes I lose my sense of self and just seem to blend in with the surroundings.
0.41	0.81	I often get so wrapped up in what I'm doing, I lose all sense of time passing.
0.49	0.42	Sometimes I feel I know exactly what someone is going to say next in a conversation, so I tune them out and daydream. Later, I'll have the same conversation (it seems like a replay) and I have to stop and think whether it really happened earlier.

NI - Nonconscious Involvement Items with High Principal Factor Loadings
Factor Loading	Endorsement Rate	Item
0.49	0.56	Sometimes I'll stop what I'm doing and I can't figure out why I was doing it.
0.39	0.45	I can get so wrapped up listening to music that I feel completely powerless to switch my train of thought to something else.
0.45	0.41	Sometimes I have no control over my actions, I just do them without thinking.
0.42	0.29	There are times when whatever I'm doing seems to take on a life of its own, running off automatically without my deliberately controlling it.
0.43	0.35	Sometimes my body does things automatically despite some attempt on my part to do otherwise.
0.40	0.82	Sometimes I will be concentrating on some activity, like reading a book, and will suddenly realize that I've also been unknowingly doing something else, like playing with my pen.
0.51	0.27	Sometimes I feel like I'm not in control of my own actions.
0.55	0.54	Sometimes when I try very hard not to do something, I find I do it anyway.
0.47	0.80	Sometimes when I'm supposed to be doing a difficult task, like studying or working on a math problem I find my mind resisting, always starting to daydream or to think about something else, and it seems nearly impossible to make myself think about the task.
0.46*	0.62	There are times when I do something without thinking about it beforehand, and afterwards I'm surprised that I've done it.
0.42	0.68	Very important ideas or decisions sometimes pop into my mind completely out of nowhere.
0.35*	0.53	Sometimes when I am doing something, like typing, playing the piano, my mind will start to wander to other things and I will almost forget that I am still doing that activity.
0.59	0.37	Sometimes I just can't stop myself from doing things.
0.54	0.32	Things I do seem to happen by themselves at times, without my willing them.
0.49	0.33	Once I start doing something really self- indulgent, like eating or lying down, it seems impossible to stop. I just can't work up the will power to stop it and do something else.
0.35	0.75	Sometimes when I can't solve a problem I deliberately turn my attention to something else, and later the answer just "pops up" all by itself.
0.52	0.63	Sometimes I can't seem to remember a recent thought or idea even if I try really hard; it's as though my mind is working without my direction.
0.35	0.73	Some time after learning a task, I may suddenly realize that I've made improvements and shortcuts in my method without being aware of it.
0.57	0.41	When I try to understand why I'm doing something, I sometimes draw a complete blank, then go on with what I'm doing.
0.45	0.30	Sometimes when I get going in some awful direction, like starting to yell at someone, or to bitterly criticize something, I just can't stop myself. "It" just seems to go on against my will.
0.38	0.20	I usually can't resist the suggestions of other people, even though I may want to do so.
0.43	0.53	When I'm with others, I often feel I'm thinking and acting just like them, even though it's not what I thought I would do in that particular situation.
0.39	0.64	When faced with a problem, I sometimes react almost automatically with the correct answer, and then later have to think about why my answer was correct.
0.57*	0.38	It sometimes seems like the situation is in control of me, instead of me being in control of the situation.
-.48	0.43	I have control over all of my actions.
0.51	0.26	Sometimes my body seems to operate completely on its own.
0.56	0.44	Sometimes I just can't stop what I'm doing.
0.61*	0.54	Sometimes when somebody asks me for my opinion, I'll give a reply without thinking and later have to determine whether I really meant what I said.
0.41	0.36	My mind seems to remember only what it wants to remember.
0.52*	0.41	My mind often seems to resist thinking about or attending to what I want it to do.
0.36	0.19	I often do what others tell me to do because it seems too difficult to resist.

AI - Archaic Involvement Items with High Principal Factor Loadings
Factor Loading	Endorsement Rate	Item
0.35	0.22	I feel I need more love and attention than I am capable of giving.
0.52*	0.40	If I were in an experiment, I would try very hard to please the experimenter.
0.35	0.15	I become very dependent on other people who tell me what to do.
0.43	0.71	Ifeel guilty when I don't do what's expected of me.
0.37	0.23	I would be afraid that the experimenter would get angry with me for wasting time if I did something wrong in an experiment.
0.45*	0.37	I wanted good grades in school, but in addition my academic work had a strong personal element--that is, I didn't want to disappoint or embarass my teachers.
0.54*	0.49	I have a tendency to idealize people who appear to be powerful and successful.
0.45*	0.50	When I'm in the company of people who are older than I, I sometimes feel like a small child again.
0.50	0.85	I have a strong need to please people who are important to me.
0.45	0.23	I have a tendency to think of my teacher or boss as a parent figure.
0.47*	0.69	I usually do everything I can to keep people happy.
0.40	0.70	I like to think that I'm doing what I want to do, even when it's clear that I'm only following the instructions of someone else.
-.36	0.41	I rarely worry about whether or not important people like me.

DR - Drowsiness Items with High Principal Factor Loadings
Factor Loading	Endorsement Rate	Item
-.43	0.87	I am usually mentally alert and energetic.
0.40	0.64	Sometimes when sitting and relaxing at home, I get so relaxed and sluggish that I can hardly get up out of the chair without lots of effort.
0.47	0.77	There are times during the course of the day when I feel I have no energy at all, and doing anything would be a chore.
0.62	0.50	I often feel sluggish, drowsy, and sleepy during the day even though I have had a good sleep the night before.
0.37	0.56	Sometimes it is very difficult for me to think through a problem; it would be so easy to not think about anything.
0.46	0.08	I often doze off in movies, concerts, or lectures.
0.51	0.68	Even after a good night's sleep, I sometimes feel groggy and sluggish during the day.
0.60	0.63	I often find that I have periods of drowsiness and sluggishness.
0.40	0.51	Sometimes I get so sleepy it feels like my mind is a complete blank; even though I'm still awake, I'm not thinking about anything.
0.48	0.34	I often find it difficult to motivate myself to do something.
0.42*	0.41	Sometimes I find it impossible to stay awake, even if it's important that I do so.
0.71	0.22	I feel drowsy and sleepy several times a day.
0.53*	0.49	There are times when I feel like I'm walking around in a haze, not totally awake.
-.66	0.41	I rarely feel tired or sluggish during the day.
0.44	0.28	Once I stop paying attention, everything slows down and it takes a real effort to get those mental gears going again.
0.68*	0.40	Often, even though I haven't worked very hard, I feel that my mental energies are low.
0.48	0.68	Sometimes during a lecture or at work I feel a need to close my eyes and rest for awhile.
0.40	0.37	I often nap in the late afternoon, just for the pleasure of it (as opposed to replacing sleep lost the night before).
0.48	0.21	I often have to struggle not to fall asleep in the middle of the day.
0.53	0.14	I tend to get sleepy if I sit quietly for more than a few minutes.
-.55*	0.37	I'm usually quite alert during waking hours and don't get sleepy until I go to bed at night.
0.55	0.10	It seems that I am more often drowsy than I am alert during the day.
0.64*	0.41	I'm often quite sleepy and either take a nap, or would like to, during the day.

RE - Relaxation Items with High Principal Factor Loadings
Factor Loading	Endorsement Rate	Item
0.39	0.30	When I am feeling tense or nervous, I can just sit or lie down and in a few moments get completely and totally relaxed.
-.54*	0.54	When I get tense, or anxious, I find it difficult to calm myself down.
-.74	0.19	I find it hard to get myself sufficiently relaxed so that I feel peaceful and calm both mentally and physically.
-.66	0.42	I often feel nervous, tense and anxious.
-.72	0.27	It's very hard for me to completely relax.
0.63	0.44	I rarely feel tense; I'd say I'm a pretty relaxed individual.
0.45	0.30	If something bad happens to me, I can easily calm myself down and not let it bother me.
-.50	0.13	It seems like I'm always tense.
0.44	0.39	Much of the time I feel very mellow and serene.
0.53*	0.56	If I just stop what I'm doing and think about relaxing, I relax.
0.50	0.51	It usually takes a lot to get me upset.
0.75*	0.62	It's usually easy for me to relax both my mind and body.
0.61	0.59	I often feel very calm and tranquil.
0.49*	0.38	When something is on my mind that is getting me upset, I am able to set it aside for a while until I calm down.
-.67	0.28	I have trouble relaxing enough to fall asleep at night.
-.42	0.77	When I try to go to sleep at night, thoughts about the events of the day, and plans for tomorrow, keep racing through my mind.
-.51*	0.41	I often have trouble shutting off my mind and getting relaxed so I can fall asleep.

IM - Vividness of Imagery Items with High Principal Factor Loadings
Factor Loading	Endorsement Rate	Item
0.38	0.56	When I'm thinking about people, I can imagine what they look like, dress like, the way they talk, so vividly it almost seems like they're really there.
0.55*	0.38	When I'm watching a food commercial on TV, like a pizza ad, I sometimes can actually smell the food.
0.51	0.70	Sometimes when I'm half-awake I'll imagine something so clearly that I think it's real.
0.37	0.55	My dreams usually contain very colorful and detailed scenes.
0.48	0.63	I often think in images, but sometimes they're much more vivid and real than at other times.
0.43	0.41	Sometimes I have trouble telling whether something actually happened or I just imagined it.
0.50*	0.47	If I think about some type of food, like a lemon or some fudge, I can really taste it.
0.45	0.25	Sometimes if I am eating something rather bland I can make it seem better by imagining another time I had it when it tasted better.
0.45*	0.63	There have been times when I thought for sure that I saw something, but it turned out not to be actually there. Maybe it was a mirage or a kind of hallucination, but I still remember seeing it.
0.44	0.24	If I'm feeling cold I can warm myself up just by imagining I'm in a warmer climate.
0.59	0.48	Sometimes when I think about a particular food or drink, I can actually taste the flavor in my mouth.
0.47	0.67	I have a good imagination and can create vivid mental pictures of things even when I'm just letting my mind wander.
0.35	0.73	If I'm bored, perhaps in a lecture, I pass the time by imagining that I'm doing something else in a different place.
0.48*	0.52	Sometimes I can picture myself doing something so vividly that I can actually feel the sensations that go on with the image.
0.47*	0.44	Once in a while, usually when I'm tired, I think that someone's just said something to me, but when I look around, there's no one there.
0.48	0.60	When I think about food, I can also imagine what it tastes and smells like.
0.48	0.59	On a rainy, windy night I can imagine all sorts of things going on, like people or animals creeping around the house.
0.58	0.34	When I know I'm going to have something good for dinner, it seems that I can smell that food all day long.
0.53	0.35	Once in a while, like when I'm reading in the evening, it seems as if there's music playing softly somewhere, but then when I actually pay attention to it to try to figure out the tune or where it's coming from, I realize it was just traffic noise or the air conditioner or something else.
0.54	0.21	I can think about a scent, like flowers or perfume to the point where I can actually experience the odor.
0.38	0.46	I have had experiences (not related to drugs) where I felt as though I was floating through the air, or being transported through time.
0.45	0.31	Once in a while when I'm reading or watching a movie and something happens to a character, it feels as though it's happened to me--like if the hero gets wounded in the shoulder my shoulder actually hurts.
0.46	0.45	When I watch a good fantasy movie I can project myself right into the story and can vividly experience what is going on.
0.51	0.49	Sometimes when I'm dreaming I find I can direct what's going on, changing the imagery and the action.

AB - Absorption Items with High Principal Factor Loadings
Factor Loading	Endorsement Rate	Item
0.47	0.45	When I'm doing something interesting, I usually become totally engrossed in that thing to the exclusion of everything else around me.
0.58*	0.56	When I'm listening to certain pieces of music, I get fully involved, so I'm not aware of other sounds around me.
0.40	0.70	I can be totally absorbed in experiencing the present moment.
0.44*	0.44	It's hard for me to pay attention to things around me when I'm focusing on one particular task.
0.51	0.30	When I'm working on a difficult task I become so engrossed in it that I become unaware of events around me.
0.41	0.83	I find certain scenes, such as the ocean, the mountains, or the sunset so riveting that I could watch them for hours.
0.47	0.32	I often get completely absorbed in something I'm doing--like writing a paper or working with my hands. While I'm doing it, I think only of it and nothing else.
0.70*	0.53	I sometimes concentrate on only what I feel or think, and ignore everything else around me.
0.35*	0.56	Sometimes I find people so fascinating that I stare at them for long periods of time, until my companions shake me out of it.
0.39*	0.47	I can become totally engrossed in nothing at all-- like staring out into space.
0.58	0.32	I am easily engrossed by things, from the simplest to the most complex, to the exclusion of all other thoughts.

AU - Access to the Unconscious Items with High Principal Factor Loadings
Factor Loading	Endorsement Rate	Item
0.45	0.77	Sometimes I think about things that simply wouldn't make sense to anyone else.
0.59	0.36	Sometimes I experience visual images that seem to appear out of nowhere.
0.62	0.72	Sometimes really strange thoughts just come to me from nowhere.
0.43	0.38	There's often a dreamlike quality to things that happen to me.
0.50	0.54	Sometimes I get urges to do things that must come from some primitive part of my mind.
0.55	0.45	I often had the experience of suddenly becoming aware that unconsciously I felt differently about someone or something than I was consciously aware of.
0.56	0.46	I have often had the experience of suddenly realizing that I had been acting like I was really afraid of something, dreading or avoiding something--and I really was afraid of it, even though I didn't realize it at the time it was happening.
0.55*	0.58	I have often caught myself flirting with someone, or acting as if I was romantically interested in them, even though I hadn't even consciously realized at all that I was attracted to him (or her), but I really was.
0.63*	0.41	Sometimes when I'm daydreaming, or even just thinking about nothing in particular, I realized I've been thinking really illogical thoughts, so that I can't make any sense out of what I was just thinking a few seconds before.
0.51*	0.59	Without my seeming to direct my thoughts, they sometimes turn to my childhood or to some emotional experience from my past.
0.58	0.70	Sometimes I have thoughts I'd rather not have; it's hard for me to imagine how or why such things even enter my mind.
0.58	0.68	My mind sometimes replays parts of my life when I'm least expecting it--sometimes it's about something I haven't thought about in years, and I have no idea what made me think of it.
0.35	0.36	I sometimes imagine and feel things in ways that I haven't experienced since I was a small child.
0.64*	0.48	Bizarre or fantastic thoughts that seem to be from old dreams, or from my unconscious run through my mind at times without my trying at all to think about them.
0.60	0.59	I can be thinking about one thing, and then suddenly find myself imagining things that haven't happened in years.
0.41	0.75	When thinking momentarily about something that occurred in my past, I suddenly recall many important details and events that I had previously forgotten.
0.60	0.44	In the course of my everyday life my thinking is often interrupted by thoughts that seem to come out of nowhere.
0.65*	0.51	Sometimes a thought will come to my mind that seems so totally foreign that I wonder what could have possibly made me think of it.

*Items marked with an asterisk were selected for inclusion in the final version of the Wisconsin Experience Questionnaire. Return.

Reference

Kihlstrom, J.F., Register, P.A., Hoyt, I.P., Albright, J.S., Grigorian, E.M., Heindel, W.C., & Morrison, C.R. (1989). Dispositional correlates of hypnosis: A phenomenological approach. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 37, 249-263.

This page last revised 04/08/10 02:58:53 PM .