Assignment: Idea of Centration

Applying the idea of centration to the media, younger children are likely to respond strongly to a single feature in a television or movie scene, such as a character’s red dress or a hero’s shiny weapon. The prominence of the cues as well as the child’s own interests will help determine what is most salient. Other perceptual cues such as the character’s hair color, name, physical size, and even certain overt behaviors may go unnoticed. In emotional stories, for example, a character’s feelings are often conveyed through facial expressions as well as situational information in the plot. Younger children will be more likely to fixate on one or the other of these sets of cues, even when they conflict (Wiggers & van Lieshout, 1985). Thus, in some cases, we can expect that this centration will interfere with a young child’s comprehension of the storyline (see Figure 1.17).

From Perceived Appearance to Reality. Another important cognitive skill during childhood concerns the ability to distinguish fantasy from reality. Much to a parent’s amazement, a 3-year-old child may attribute life to an inanimate object such as a rock, have an invisible friend, and want Dora from Dora the Explorer to come over to the house for a play date. All of these tendencies reflect a fuzzy separation between what is real and what is not.

Numerous studies have found strong developmental differences in children’s perceived reality of television (see Dorr, 1983; Wright, Huston, Reitz, & Piemyat, 1994). Younger children between the ages of 2 and 3 show little understanding of the boundary between television and the real world (Jaglom & Gardner, 1981). In fact, at this age, children routinely talk to the television set and wave at the characters (Noble, 1975). For example, in one study, many 3-year-olds reported that a bowl of popcorn shown on TV would spill if the television set were turned upside down (Flavell, Flavell, Green, & Korfmacher, 1990).

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By around age 4, the young child begins to appreciate the representational nature of television but still tends to assume that anything that looks real is real (M. H. Brown, Skeen, & Osborn, 1979). This literal interpretation has been called the “magic window” perspective, reflecting the idea that young children naively assume that television provides a view of the real world. Gradually, children come to appreciate that some of what is shown on television is not real, although most of this centers first on perceptual cues. For example, 5-year-olds typically judge cartoons as not real because they feature physically impossible events and characters (Wright et al., 1994). In other words, the young child assesses content by looking for striking violations of physical reality (Dorr, 1983). It is important to note, though,

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
- Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
- Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
- One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
- I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
- Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
- In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
- Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
- Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
- Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
- Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
- I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
- I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
- As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
- It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
- For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
- Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
- Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
- Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
- The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
- Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
- If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
- I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
- As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
- Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
  - Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  - Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.