ACCESSIBILITY AND STABILITY OF PREDICTORS IN THE THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR

To test the propositions that an attitude's ability to predict behavior is influenced by its temporal stability and by its accessibility in memory, 75 students were given direct or indirect experience with 6 video games and fun or skill instructions. They completed a computer-administered questionnaire before and after a free-play period. On the basis of Ajzen's (1988) theory of planned behavior, time played with each game was correlated with attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and intentions with respect to playing each game. Direct experience and fun instructions improved prediction of behavior, lowered latencies of responses to questionnaire items, and increased their temporal stabilities. The improved prediction of behavior was found to be mediated by the temporal stabilities of the predictor variables but, contrary to expectations, not by response latencies. It is suggested that more attention be given to the role of the stability of variables in attitude-behavior models.