A strategy for investigating which individual difference variables have transfer value at various stages of acquiring effective reading skills was discussed. Definitions of basic human abilities, including intrinsic and extrinsic individual differences were reviewed. In examining the required subskills in the reading process, it was pointed out that, regardless of the taxonomy used, appropriate behaviors must be defined representing the various levels and data gathered and examined for a hierarchical structure. The proposed strategy would include the following steps: (1) obtain measures on the skills for a sample representative of a wide age and reading skill range; (2) gather baseline data on the basic human abilities; (3) measure students periodically on various reading skills; and (4) calculate intercorrelations of basic abilities with various reading skills, which would be measures of the transfer value of the basic abilities to various stages of learning the reading skills. A bibliography is included. (CL)