Preschool children's responses to "wh-questions" (those including the concepts who, what, where, when, how, and why) were studied in order to determine the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) on frequency of correct and incorrect answers. Investigation focused on three questions: (1) When a response to a wh-question is incorrect, with which other wh-word is it confused? (2) Are differences in response patterns correlated with SES? and (3) Are there developmental differences between SES groups with regard to correct responses? Sixty middle-SES and 60 low-SES children -- divided by age into groups of 20, each containing an equal number of boys and girls -- served as subjects. Thirty questions were constructed as stimuli, five for each of the six wh-words. Each of 15 black and white line drawings depicting adults, children, animals, and common objects in various situations was designed to elicit the answer to 2 of the 30 questions. Since memory was not being tested, questions were repeated upon request; each subject was tested individually for approximately 20 minutes. Results are discussed. (Author/RH)