A study examined: (1) whether making decisions (i.e. answering yes/no questions) about a brief prose passage enables children to detect logical inconsistencies in the passage; and (2) the extent to which hearing-impaired children differ from normal hearing children in their abilities to recognize logical inconsistencies in text. Subjects were 52 hearing-impaired children (age ranges from 9.8 to 20.11 years) and 56 normal hearing children (age ranges from 7.4 to 11.7 years), reading at the second- to sixth-grade levels. The children read twice two brief paragraphs containing logical inconsistencies. Between the first and second readings, one-third of the children read and answered a series of yes/no questions about the paragraph, one-third read the questions but did not answer them, and one-third did not see the questions at all. Each child was then asked a series of probe questions to determine whether they had noticed the contradictions. Performance on the two paragraphs yielded completely different findings. Results demonstrated that the deaf children and the hearing children in these samples were approximately equal in their abilities to detect logical inconsistencies, at least when they possessed the necessary background knowledge. Findings on the effectiveness of the read-and-answer-questions treatment were inconclusive, and suggested that their usefulness may depend on the familiarity of the information presented in the text. Findings underscore the importance of preparing students to receive new information in order that they can make connections with their existing knowledge. (SR)