Abstract Information technology has assumed an important role in organizations during the past decade. No longer the private preserve of small groups of computer specialists, end-user computing is placing information technology into the hands of employees at all levels and in virtually all functional areas. This study attempts to gain a fuller understanding of factors associated with the ability to use IF-THEN-ELSE (or Nested IF-THEN-ELSE) constructs in end-user computing. It proposes a model and summarizes empirical findings which suggest that performance in programming tasks can be partially accounted for by a consideration of personality and aptitude constructs.