The usefulness of response latency data for biographical inventory items was assessed for improving the inventory's validity. Focus was on assessing whether weighting item scores on the basis of their latencies improves the predictive validity of the inventory's total score. A total of 120 items from the Armed Services Applicant Profile (ASAP) were administered via computers to 1,090 male Navy recruits at the Recruit Training Center in San Diego (California); the regular score, latency-weighted scores, and measures of deviant latencies were obtained. The latency-weighted scores did not improve the ASAP's validity in predicting 6-month retention beyond that obtained with the regular score; the deviant latency measures did not function as suppressor or moderator variables to increase the ASAP's validity. Subgroups of items with differing latencies varied systematically in their internal-consistency reliability (with increased reliability for subgroups with shorter latencies), and a small subgroup of items with moderate latencies was almost as valid as the regular score, suggesting that latency data may be useful in writing and selecting inventory items. Five tables and four graphs complement the study. A 34-item list of references is included. (Author/SLD)