The Preschool Inventory is the task in this battery most clearly associated with general cognitive development. It measures a range of verbal, quantitative, and perceptual-motor skills. The Inventory was first developed as a general achievement measure for Head Start children. The 1970 edition of the Inventory contains 64 items in four areas: personal-social responsiveness, associative vocabulary, concept activation--numerical, concept activation--sensory. About 60% of the items require an oral response; the rest give directions for some other physical action. The test requires approximately 20 minutes with three- to five-year-olds. Children's answers were recorded for the verbal items, and their performance described on nonverbal ones. The correlation between Year 1 and Year 2 scores was .66, one of the highest in this study. Both the internal analyses and the correlational data suggest that this task is a reliable and valid measure of preschool cognitive abilities. Significant sex, age, and SES differences were noted. Age and SES differences are attributed to the importance of experience as an influence on general knowledge and skills. The higher performance of girls may reflect differential home instruction, greater cooperation or interest in the task, and/or differential verbal interaction with the mother, in amount and in elaboration. (For related documents, see TM 003 174-191, 193-198.) (KM)