BIS-11 Impulsiveness Screener

The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale is a free thirty-question self-assessment measuring your tendency to act impulsively across six dimensions. It takes about five minutes. Your answers are private and your score report is sent to you by email.

What the BIS-11 is

The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale is the most widely used measure of trait impulsiveness in psychology. Ernest Barratt began developing it in the 1950s, and the eleventh version - the one in standard use - was published by Jim Patton, Matthew Stanford and Barratt in 1995. It has been used in several thousand studies.

Thirty statements, each rated for how often it applies to you, from rarely or never to almost always. The total runs from 30 to 120. Several items are reverse-scored, so answering quickly without reading will distort your result more than on most questionnaires.

It is worth knowing that it measures impulsiveness as a general personality trait. It is not specific to any condition, it does not diagnose anything, and a high score is not evidence of ADHD or of anything else on its own.

The six dimensions

The thirty items divide into six subscales, which the original research groups into three broader kinds of impulsiveness: acting without thinking (motor), difficulty staying with a task or a thought (attentional), and difficulty planning ahead (non-planning).

Attention impulsiveness - scored 5 to 20

Difficulty keeping attention on what is in front of you - drifting during a conversation, a task, or a piece of reading. High scores mean more difficulty.

Motor impulsiveness - scored 7 to 28

Acting on the moment rather than the plan - doing things on the spur of the moment, moving or speaking before the thought has finished. High scores mean more of this.

Cognitive instability - scored 3 to 12

Racing or intruding thoughts, and difficulty holding a single line of thinking while something else keeps arriving. High scores mean more instability.

Self-control - scored 6 to 24

Thinking carefully and planning before acting. Note that this subscale runs the other way: a high score means lower self-control, because the items are reverse-keyed.

Cognitive complexity - scored 5 to 20

Enjoying and engaging with mental challenge and complicated problems. This one also runs the other way: a high score means lower cognitive complexity.

Perseverance - scored 4 to 16

Staying with something difficult, dull or long. Also reverse-keyed: a high score means lower perseverance.

Why three of the subscales run backwards

This confuses almost everyone, so it is worth stating plainly. Self-control, cognitive complexity and perseverance are all named after the desirable quality, but their items are reverse-scored so that everything adds into one impulsiveness total.

The practical effect is that on those three, a higher number is the less comfortable result - low self-control, low cognitive complexity, low perseverance. On the other three - attention, motor and cognitive instability - a higher number means more of the thing named. Your report labels each band accordingly, but the raw numbers on their own are easy to read backwards.

How it is scored

Your total runs from 30 to 120, in three bands. These are the standard published cut-offs.

Low impulsivity - 30 to 51

Below the typical range. See the note below - this band is more interesting than it sounds.

Average impulsivity - 52 to 71

Within the normal range for adults. Most people score here.

High impulsivity - 72 to 120

Above the threshold the research uses to identify high trait impulsiveness.

Why a low score is not automatically the good result

The band below 52 is usually described in the literature not as "good" but as over-controlled, and that distinction is worth having.

Very low impulsiveness can mean careful judgement. It can also mean difficulty acting without complete information, decision paralysis, an inability to change course once committed, and a rigidity that costs as much in its own way as impulsiveness does. Many autistic adults score in this band, and it is worth reading as a description of a style with two sides rather than as a pass mark.

The original authors also noted that an unusually low total can indicate that someone answered less candidly than they intended - which is worth considering if your score surprises you.

Where impulsiveness fits for autistic and ADHD adults

Impulsiveness is one of the two symptom domains in ADHD, so a high BIS-11 score often accompanies a positive ADHD screener. Taking both gives a fuller picture than either alone, since the ASRS asks about symptoms and this asks about the underlying trait.

For autistic adults the picture is less uniform. Some score low, reflecting the careful, deliberate, plan-first style the profile is associated with. Others score high, particularly where autism and ADHD co-occur - which is common enough to have its own shorthand, AuDHD. A split result, with high attentional impulsiveness alongside high self-control, is a fairly recognisable AuDHD shape: a mind that drifts and races while the person attached to it plans everything carefully to compensate.

One caution specific to this site. Difficulty planning, poor perseverance and attentional drift are also what autistic burnout does to executive function. If you are currently depleted, this questionnaire may be measuring your state rather than your trait.

What this screener is not

This assessment is for information and self-reflection only. It is not a diagnostic tool and does not replace professional medical or psychological advice.

Impulsiveness appears across a wide range of conditions and in plenty of people with none, which makes a high score informative but not specific. It is also worth knowing that the BIS-11’s six-factor structure has not always replicated cleanly in later research, and shorter versions have been proposed as a result - so treat the individual subscale scores as indicative rather than precise.

What happens after you finish

You receive your total, all six subscale scores and a report by email. Nothing is shared with anyone unless you ask us to send it somewhere. If you would like to talk the result through, you can tell us at the end and we will follow up.

Working with us

We provide adult ADHD assessment, autism assessment and dual assessment for both, with add-on evaluations for alexithymia and demand avoidance. If you need documentation rather than a diagnosis, our page on neuroaffirming accommodations explains that process.

You can also meet the clinicians, read our frequently asked questions, or browse the rest of our free tools on the self-discovery page.

About Adult Autism Assessment

We assess and support neurodivergent adults - people seeking a first diagnosis in adulthood, people who have known for years and want documentation, and people who are still working out what fits. Our approach is neurodiversity-affirming: an assessment here is about accurate self-understanding and practical accommodation, not about finding out what is wrong with you.

Adult Autism Assessment is part of New Path Family of Therapy Centers, Inc.