What do paragraph markings do?

Abstract

This report investigates the role of paragraph markings in text: how informative a paragraph cue is and how paragraph cues affect interpretation. In the first study, subjects were shown unparagraphed versions of three texts and asked to reinstate the paragraph markings. The second study examined the effect of paragraph marking on reading time, ratings, and judgment of important ideas in the text. The results show that a paragraph is a discourse unit that is suggested but not absolutely specified by the content of the text. The position and presence of paragraph boundaries did not affect the reading speed or ratings of the texts, but they did affect what ideas were considered to be important.