Research on retrieval fluency suggests that, under different recall constraints, recalling past failures might be as effective as past successes for engineering task performance. In the current study, students recalling three instances of academic success correctly answered more items on a knowledge task than those recalling nine instances. Other students, asked to recall nine instances of failure, answered more items correctly than those recalling three failures and more than those recalling nine successes. This pattern was partially mediated by the assessments of one's ability as compared with other students. The results are interpreted as extending previous research in retrieval fluency by suggesting that the ease of retrieving task-related instances informs individuals about their comparative ability that, in turn, influences performance.

Two studies examined a matching hypothesis: Attitudes predict behaviors better when they both involve the same rather than different levels of attitude-relevant action activity. In Study 1, participants listed actions they might take toward gay men and immediately reported their attitudes. One to two weeks later, their reported attitudes were more predictive of behaviors that matched than mismatched the activity level of their listed actions. In Study 2, participants were randomly assigned to make decisions about either active or passive actions toward gay men just before they reported their attitudes. One to two weeks later, their reported attitudes better predicted behaviors that matched than mismatched the type of attitude-relevant action that had been made salient. The results support the importance to attitude-behavior consistency of matching attitude-relevant actions and behavioral measures on activity level, and the utility of considering both positivity and activity level in studies of attitude-behavior consistency.