Self-assessments of task performance can draw on both top-down sources of information
(preconceived notions about one’s ability at the task) and bottom-up cues (one’s concrete
experience with the task itself). Past research has suggested that top-down self-views can
mislead performance evaluations, but has yet to specify the exact psychological mechanisms that
produce this influence. Across 4 experiments we tested the hypothesis that self-views influence
performance evaluations by first shaping perceptions of bottom-up experiences with the task,
which in turn inform performance evaluations. Consistent with this hypothesis, a relevant topdown
belief influenced performance estimates only when learned of before, but not after,
completing a task (Study 1), and measures of bottom-up experience were found to mediate the
link between top-down beliefs about one’s abilities and performance evaluations (Studies 2-4).
Furthermore, perception of an objectively definable bottom-up cue (i.e., time it takes to solve a
problem) was better predicted by a relevant self-view than the actual passage of time.