The current study is concerned with identifying racial-ethnic differences in cognitive strategies or structures that are related to performance on verbal ability tests. The study had two goals: (1) to compare the semantic equivalency of intelligence test items between racial-ethnic groups, and (2) to examine the relationships of individual differences in interpreting semantic concepts in test items to solving the items. The results indicated that the test items were not semantically equivalent between groups, and that racial-ethnic differences in solving intelligence test items may be partly based on differences in interpreting relationships. (Author)