An information processing approach was applied to the development and validation of a test battery intended for personnel selection, classification, and guidance; and design of training programs. The approach specifies that tests should measure specific cognitive processes and basic abilities, rather than prior experience. Tests should be short, easy to administer, statistically independent, and reliable. Taken as a whole, the test should not be designed to predict ability or interest in a particular job. Twenty-two adults were tested twice on the following tasks: (1) free recall (control, concrete and abstract); (2) running recognition; (3) interference susceptibility; (4) list differentiation; (5) situational frequency; and (6) memory span. The tasks were evaluated for ease of administering and scoring, replicability, and ability to measure individual differences. All tasks passed the first criterion and all but task 3 passed the second; however, most were unable to demonstrate individual differences on a variety of attributes--they seemed more related to a general encoding and storage skill. All but task 3 were selected for the battery. (Sample items from each task are appended.) (CP)