A review of the implications for the validity of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) of scientific developments accompanying the revival of cognitive psychology provides insights into the importance of such changes. A distinction can be made between a process-oriented or diagnostic test and an outcomes-oriented test such as the SAT. Since the SAT does not aim to be a diagnostic test, the implications of cognitive theories for test construction that would otherwise be applicable are not emphasized. Nevertheless, an analysis based on quantitative items illustrates how tests with a diagnostic orientation could be based on cognitive principles. An explication was developed for the linkage of cognitive principles with psychometric considerations for an outcomes-oriented test. The essence of that linkage is an accounting of item difficulty. The understanding of differential difficulty among items can be viewed as an additional requirement for construct validity, which until recently, focused almost exclusively on an accounting of the co-variation of test scores in terms of "abilities." Although work from this enlarged validational perspective on SAT items is limited, there is work based on similar items that suggests that the SAT will fare well when relevant studies are conducted. Future studies should be based on an enlarged validational framework. A nine-page list of references is included. (TJH)