The Cloze Test
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If you take a sentence and remove a word from it, could your readers fill in the blank? This type of fill-in-the-blank test is called the cloze test.
What are cloze tests useful for?
If you’ve used a language-learning platform like Duolingo, you'll be familiar with this kind of exercise—I was happy to discover that there’s a name for it. That’s partly because the cloze test is useful for:
- Testing understanding
How well can someone understand the overall meaning of the sentence, and do they have the knowledge required to complete it? - Completing from context
We use context all the time when interpreting others’ words, so it’s great practice for language learning. - Retrieval practice
When you have to produce the missing word yourself, retrieving it from memory can help reinforce learning.
In my experience, cloze tests also abound in corporate training. Filling in a blank in a sentence has the handy benefits of testing understanding while also repeating, or even introducing, the answer. Even if you haven't learnt the answer before, context and the possible alternatives can help you figure it out.
In some ways, you can teach by just providing the test. Whether you get it right or wrong, it’s an opportunity to consider the alternatives critically, discover the correct answer and reinforce it.
Cloze tests are also straightforward to build and automatically mark when learners choose from preset options, which perhaps also explains their popularity.
Why is it called a cloze test?
While no doubt people had been asking others to “fill in the blanks” for many years, the cloze test was formally introduced as the cloze procedure in 1953 by Wilson L. Taylor in his paper, “’Cloze Procedure’: A New Tool for Measuring Readability .” (PDF)
Taylor coined the word cloze from closure, a principle of gestalt psychology where we intuitively complete missing parts, for example, seeing a broken circle as a complete circle. Just as with the circle, Taylor removed parts of a text and asked readers to complete it. The more successfully readers could restore the missing words, the more readable the text.
To fill the gap, we draw on the surrounding words, our knowledge of the topic, and our vocabulary. Many modern versions also provide a selection of possible answers.
Next time you come across one, you’ll have a name for it.
Ideas related to the cloze test
Also see:
- Context is king
- Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception
- F-Shaped Reading
- The Feynman Learning Technique
- Bloom’s Taxonomy for learning
- The Learning Pit
- Wooden’s 8 Laws of Learning
I loved Taylor’s introduction to his paper (PDF, courtesy of Gwern Branwen):
“"CLOZE PROCEDURE" is a new psychological tool for measuring the effectiveness of communication. The method is straightforward; the data are easily quantifiable; the findings seem to stand up.” If only all research were that clear and confident.
The cloze test is sometimes called an occlusion test or cloze deletion test.