The Soviet position on vocabulary and the relationships among intelligence, language, and culture holds that thoughts and words have different developmental roots and that there are more differences than likenesses between them. In this United States study, 105 students grouped by their having parents in three different employment categories were asked to respond to pictures in the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT). Results suggest that vocabulary and not concept acquisition is the key to receiving a high IQ score on the PPVT. Subjects whose parents held professional jobs were more apt to have in their memories the stimulus words in the PPVT. Analysis of concepts known (as opposed to vocabulary words known) by students taking the test indicates that differences between"advantaged" and "disadvantaged" students are not nearly as serious as IQ scores suggest. School vocabulary magnifies the problem. The study concludes that the use of prestige vocabulary in the PPVT to determine intellectual potential is fraught with bigotry and is used to deny children due process in American education. (DS)