Frequently asked questions

The ICA is a free 40-item behavioral-preference assessment from ICAPsychometrics. Each item describes a situation and offers four responses; you choose what you would actually do. Your choices produce scores on four dimensions (Integrative Synthesis, Systematic Analysis, Social Attunement and Environmental Engagement), which group into three faculties: Thinking, Feeling and Willing. The result is one of 24 ranked profiles.

ICAPsychometrics is short for Integrated Cognitive Assessment and Psychometrics. It is the name of the company and website that publish the ICA, a personality-style behavioral-preference assessment being built as a shared standard. The ICA is not a test of cognitive ability, and it is currently being studied.

No. A different organization, Cognetivity Neurosciences, sells a medical screening test for cognitive impairment under the same name, Integrated Cognitive Assessment (ICA) (overview). ICAPsychometrics is not connected to it. The ICA does not measure memory, attention or any cognitive ability, and it cannot screen for dementia. If you are worried about memory or thinking, speak to a doctor.

It is being built to become one across industries: free to take, with published scoring, a common results format, certified practitioners and an active research program. Its accuracy is currently being studied. How the standard works.

About 15 minutes for most people: 40 items, each with four options.

Yes. The full 40-item test, your scores, your faculty, your profile and unlimited retakes are free. The premium report ($48) adds the full interpretation, growth practice, stress pattern, faculty balance analysis and a 30-day guide.

The ICA was developed by ICAPsychometrics. It draws on the long tradition that divides the mind into thinking, feeling and willing, most directly Rudolf Steiner's, and on the "trilogy of mind" in the history of psychology.

Yes. Hiring is one of the uses the ICA is designed for, alongside coaching, team development, education and wellbeing. Candidates take the free test on their own device and share their results file; the profile helps you plan structured interview questions, discuss role fit and plan onboarding. Use it with interviews and job-relevant assessments, compare each profile with the demands of the role rather than ranking candidates by raw scores, and never make it the sole basis for a consequential decision.

In your browser. The online test scores your answers on your device and keeps your history in your browser's local storage. Nothing you answer is sent to us.

No. There is no account, password or login.

Only what you choose to submit in our forms: for example your email address when you request the offline file, email yourself your results or start a purchase, plus any optional questions you answer. Payments are handled by our payment processor. See the privacy policy for the full list.

The test uses your browser's local storage to keep your progress and history on your device; that is not a tracking cookie. This site currently runs no analytics, advertising or social-media tracking scripts.

Your test data lives in your browser: use "Clear my saved results" on the test page, or clear this site's data in your browser settings. To delete anything you sent us, such as your email address, send a request through the Contact link at the bottom of any page.

Yes, but your browser deletes local storage when you close a private window, so your saved results will not survive. Export them before you close.

Yes. Request the offline file on the test page: a short form asks for your email, and the single HTML file downloads when you submit. It runs in any modern browser without an internet connection.

Each answer letter maps to one dimension: A to Integrative Synthesis, B to Systematic Analysis, C to Social Attunement and D to Environmental Engagement. Your four counts always add up to 40. Thinking is Integrative Synthesis plus Systematic Analysis; Feeling is Social Attunement; Willing is Environmental Engagement. Ranking the four dimensions gives your profile.

Integrative Synthesis (seeing patterns and wholes), Systematic Analysis (understanding parts and structures), Social Attunement (perceiving how others feel) and Environmental Engagement (acting on what is in front of you).

Because thinking works in two modes: seeing wholes and analyzing parts. Behavioral science draws the same line between intuitive and deliberate thinking, and Jung's analytical psychology between intuition and thinking. It gives Thinking two routes to a high score, so the result page shows your faculty scores and your four dimension scores side by side.

Not directly. Because your four scores always add to 40, they describe the balance of your own preferences, not how much of each you have compared with other people. Someone else's 22 is not the same as your 22.

Tied dimensions are listed in A, B, C, D order, and the result page shows the other profiles the tie allows. Close or tied scores mean your profile is less settled; a retake may differ.

It shows how far your first dimension leads your second: (first minus second) divided by 40, times 100. Up to 10% is Balanced, up to 25% Clear, up to 40% Strong, and above 40% Very Strong.

Your fourth-ranked dimension: the one you use least naturally. It is your main growth area, not a weakness or a lack of ability.

Yes. Preferences can shift with practice, experience and circumstances. Retake whenever you like; we suggest once a year or after a major life change.

The complete 40-item test, all scores, your dominant faculty, your profile, the Orientation Strength Index, a short faculty interpretation, unlimited retakes and export.

Five parts across 14 to 17 pages: the complete profile interpretation, a growth practice protocol, a stress pattern analysis, a faculty balance analysis and a 30-day implementation guide.

Everything in the premium report plus reassessment reminders at 6 and 12 months, side-by-side comparison of your assessments, growth practice tracking and a progress log. It renews every year until you cancel.

Six self-paced training modules (about 2.5 hours), client administration tools, group analysis, marketing assets and 25 client assessment credits.

Everything in the license plus six advanced modules (about 3.5 hours), a 60-question examination with an 80% pass mark, a certificate with a verifiable ID, an optional directory listing and 50 client assessment credits.

Prices increase 10% annually. This increase funds our ongoing validation research.

Yes, for $1,000: the certification price minus the license price.

The test is free, so you can see your results before you pay for anything. For paid products, contact us within 30 days if you are not satisfied.

The MBTI® assessment sorts preferences into four pairs and reports one of 16 types; it costs $59.95 on MBTIonline and has a published technical manual. The ICA ranks four dimensions into one of 24 profiles and reports three faculty scores, is free, needs no account and keeps your answers in your browser. It is currently being studied.

16Personalities is free, says it takes 10 minutes and describes its model as a reworking of the Big Five; an account is optional, and results are stored on its servers. The ICA is built on the thinking, feeling and willing tradition, ranks four dimensions into 24 profiles and keeps results in your browser.

No. It does not use the four MBTI preference pairs and cannot be converted to or from a four-letter type.

They measure different things, so the comparison depends on the question you are asking. The MBTI® assessment has a long published research record. The ICA's accuracy is currently being studied, and the findings will be published.

Any modern browser on a phone, tablet or computer.

Yes: download a JSON file (the format practitioners import), or use "Save as PDF" to print the results page to a PDF.

Export your results as JSON or PDF and send the file. Practitioners with the license can import the JSON directly.

With the license, you generate a client copy of the assessment file, send it, and your client takes it on their own device and returns their results file, which you import.

No. The license lets you administer and interpret the ICA. Certification adds advanced training, an examination and a verifiable certificate.

No. It is a private credential issued by ICAPsychometrics. It is not a state license or professional certification and does not qualify anyone to provide psychological evaluation.

Yes. The license includes group analysis of faculty and profile distributions for team development, and the same profiles support hiring and onboarding as one input alongside interviews and job-relevant assessments.

Its validity and accuracy are currently being studied in a staged research program. The model draws on established parallels in analytical psychology, behavioral science and neuroscience, and findings are published on the research page as each stage completes.

On the three-part division of the mind into thinking, feeling and willing, from Rudolf Steiner and the 18th-century "trilogy of mind" (cognition, affection, conation). Its four dimensions parallel Jung's functions of intuition, thinking, feeling and sensation in analytical psychology, the intuitive and deliberate thinking styles of behavioral science, and large-scale brain networks studied in neuroscience.

The research program runs in three stages: a pilot with about 200 people, a validation study with about 1,000 and norming with 3,000 or more. Participation is voluntary and consented separately from anything else on this site.

Each stage is published in full, and the ICA is refined as the evidence comes in. That is how a standard earns its place.