AN INVESTIGATION OF THE DIFFERENCE DEFICIT HYPOTHESIS USING THE CLOZE PROCEDURE

Abstract

This study considers the hypothesized differences of difference and deficitreaders using the cloze procedure in narrative passages at the fourth grade level. The authors reject the hypothesis that deficit readers are better able to use surrounding context than difference readers. While the study's experimental design to test the difference/deficit hypothesis may not be the most powerful, it is a modified replication of a previous study from which the difference/deficit hypothesis was drawn (Cromer & Weiner, 1966). As such it does not seem to support difference/deficit notions of reading disability.