IN A RESEARCH STUDY IN SMALL GROUP INQUIRY, AN ANALYSIS WAS MADE OF THE CULTURAL DIFFERENCES AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE BEHAVIOR AND LANGUAGE STYLE OF LOWER-CLASS NEGRO AND MIDDLE-CLASS WHITE YOUTHS. ELEVEN INNER-CITY NEGRO GROUPS AND SEVEN SUBURBAN WHITE GROUPS OF 15- TO 19-YEAR-OLD YOUTHS MET SEPARATELY ONCE A WEEK FOR 10 WEEKS. IN ADDITION TO LANGUAGE AND INQUIRY STYLES, THE DEGREE OF SHARED EXPERIENCE AND POINT OF VIEW (LOW OR HIGH CONTEXT) AMONG SPEAKERS WAS EXPLORED. THE LANGUAGE STYLE OF THE INNER-CITY GROUPS WERE CHARACTERIZED AS MORE RESTRICTED THAN THAT OF THE SUBURBAN SUBSAMPLE AND SUGGESTED A RELATIVELY HIGH CONTEXT. THESE GROUPS ALSO TENDED TO EMPLOY EXAMPLES OF ACTUAL BEHAVIOR MORE FREQUENTLY THAN DID SUBURBAN GROUPS. THE INQUIRY PROCESS OF THE INNER-CITY GROUPS WAS DESCRIBED AS NONLINEAR BECAUSE THEY CHARACTERISTICALLY PRESENTED PROPOSITIONS AS CONCLUSIONS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE INQUIRY SEQUENCE. BOTH THE INNER-CITY NONLINEAR AND THE SUBURBAN LINEAR INQUIRY LED TO SOME VALID AND SOME INVALID CONCLUSIONS, AND BOTH GROUPS SHIFTED BETWEEN THE USE OF RELATIVELY RESTRICTED AND RELATIVELY ELABORATED LANGUAGE CODES. THESE SHIFTS WERE RELATED TO THE DEGREE OF APPARENT CHANGES IN SHARED CONTEXT. HOWEVER, USE OF A RESTRICTED LANGUAGE CODE DID NOT SEEM TO PRECLUDE ABSTRACT AND SOPHISTICATED INQUIRY. THUS, THE NEGRO'S DIALECT ALONE MAY NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS COGNITIVE DEPRIVATION. (LB)