Physical, mental, and socio-cultural variables were associated with performance on the Life-Science Concept Acquisition Test (L-SCAT), developed by the investigator. The usefulness of the variables as predictors of performance on L-SCAT was also investigated. The L-SCAT was administered as a picture-stimulus structured interview to each of 51 beginning kindergarten children from inner-urban, outer-urban, and rural-farm areas. As a set of pictures was presented to a subject, he was asked to respond nonverbally to a statement about the pictures by pointing to a specific picture or part of a picture. He was then asked to verbalize about his selection. Among the general findings were: (1) there were significant differences among the scores made by the subjects from the three community settings; (2) based on the L-SCAT scores, the community setting rank-order, from low-to-high was inner-urban, rural-farm, and outer-urban, respectively; (3) there were significant differences, among the scores made by the subjects from the three community settings, on six of the seven conceptual themes; (4) there were significant correlations among the L-SCAT scores and several of the physical, mental, and socio-cultural variables; and (5) subject's IQ, chronological age, the number of years of education of the subject's mother, community setting and the presence of younger siblings were most useful in predicting performance on the L-SCAT. (CP)