The purpose of this paper was to identify the role of several person variables (gender, mathematics competency, attitudes toward statistics, computer competency, and grade point average) contributing to success in introductory statistics. The performance of 103 students on four examinations during a semester constituted the dependent variable. A two-by-two factorial design with two groups for gender and two groups for each of the four self-report variables was used. The results of analysis of variance failed to reveal a difference between men and women and between high and low groups on mathematics competency, computer competency, and attitudes toward statistics. A significant difference was found in test performance between high and low grade point average groups and a significant interaction was found between gender and mathematics competency. The interaction showed that women had lower scores than men when both reported having less mathematics competency. Findings suggest that the role of person variables depends, in part, on the operational definition that investigators use. (Author/YP)