In the organizational and educational domains, student and employee performance are central outcomes to applied psychologists, practitioners, and policymakers alike. In each of these domains, sizable literatures have been devoted to research on individual differences in cognitive ability and motivation as performance determinants, that is, how between-persons variability in ability and motivational characteristics contributes to between-persons variability in performance measured at a given point in time. However, it is commonly acknowledged that performance is not a static phenomenon; rather, how an individual performs varies in systematic and substantively meaningful ways over time. One method of describing these patterns of change in performance over time is through the analysis of performance trajectories. In two studies, the influence of ability and trait-like motivational characteristics on undergraduate academic performance trajectories was examined. Results suggest that individuals high in ability and need for achievement tend to perform better initially. However, relationships between change over time and both ability and need for achievement were not consistent across samples.
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