The psychological reality of the paragraph

Abstract

Three experiments were carried out (a) to assess the degree of agreement with which Ss identify paragraph boundaries in unindented prose passages, (b) to determine whether a significant proportion of the cues to paragraph structure are formal in nature, (c) to ascertain whether the identification of paragraphs in different kinds of prose differentially depends on semantic, as distinct from formal, cues, and (d) to study developmental changes in paragraphing ability. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs in 10 English prose passages were replaced by nonsense paralogs and Ss identified paragraph boundaries in both English and nonsense versions. The median reliability for paragraphing English passages was .86; for nonsense, .75. The median correlation between paragraphing of English and nonsense versions of the same passage was .71. Children approach adult levels of paragraphing more quickly with nonsense passages than with English.