Recent research in reading comprehension suggests that there are substantial differences between individuals in their patterns of resource allocation to text-based (bottom-up) and knowledge-based (top-down) reading processes. Less able readers tend to overrely on processes in one direction, producing deleterious effects on comprehension. Factors underlying an overreliance on bottom-up processes include the following; schema unavailability or difficulty in activation; skill deficiency; student misconceptions about reading as being primarily a bottom-up process; differences in general cognitive styles; and idiosyncratic patterns of reading behavior eliciting a mistaken diagnosis of a given reading cycle. Educators should employ different remediation strategies for poor readers with different comprehension styles, and should determine instruction by the cause of the reading difficulty rather than the manisfestation. (DF)