Intelligence and cognitive abilities often denoted good thinking. However, critics of intelligence tests have long pointed out that the failures of rational judgments and decision-making imperfectly correlate with intelligence.Reviewing the work of Keith Stanovich and his colleagues, paper highlights the role of individual differences in judgment and decision-making. Paper presents a case for typical performance measure of cognitive ability besides thinking dispositions to explain variations in rational thought. Specifically, we examine and model the relationship between need for cognition (a measure of thinking dispositions), absorptive capacity (typical performance measure of intelligence) and normative decision-making tasks. © 2016 Elsevier Inc.