WEEK 5 - "Gestalt Effects and Schema Theories: Fire safety and prevention for kids"

(Unlike previous weeks where we were left to decide upon coming up with our own ideas for our blog entry, this week we are required to only work with given task. As interesting as it sounds, I also find it as the most challenging too)
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Children being children, they are highly curious creatures, and are therefore exposed to multi-kinds of dangers that could drive any mother insane. It is also a known fact that children love playing with fire.

Children are also particularly easy to scare – especially those 8-10 years old and below: Give them a scary ghost picture and they will most probably scream. Imagine this as a technique and use it to warn the fellow kids the danger of something – they will remember it for the rest of their life.

Basing on this notion, we can apply it to raise awareness in the children of fire hazards: its danger and prevention.

The First Visual Schema

The reason why: Children believe in Santa Claus, superhuman-strength heroes and, most definitely, ghosts. Why? Their perception and belief has always been shaped by the concept of a fairytale narrative, often repeatedly recounted to them as bedtime stories. Their concept of good-versus-evil is plain and simple: the good people will beat the bad people. This stretches on to their concept of heroes (the good) as knights in shining armors that will slain the villains (the bad) – who ranges from the evil necromancers to revolting looking monsters.

Rooting from this basic knowledge, it forms into a full-time belief: anything bad and evil is scary.

Upon seeing the image of a skull, the concept of ‘gruesome’ explodes in the children’s mind. This is their schema or, as noted by Tracey (2006), their “knowledge structure” (p.51). In other words, schema is how people make sense of something through past experiences – or the knowledge that they have already hold.

Top and Lower level schema: This also acts as their Top level schema i.e. things that they believe to be true (apart from another Top level schema of fire being fun, of course)

However upon seeing the image of the skull and the fire, they will have to make necessary adjustments and adjust their existing schema about fire being fun = to fire being dangerous and bad and evil and scary. This act as their Lower level of Schema – where they have to make necessary adjustments to fit in new knowledge.

Incongruity and congruity: This particular image is a powerful and highly incongruous schema for children, simply because looking at them creates uneasiness in children where their usual idea of fun is being blended in with something scary. The image successfully creates a whole new meaning, and will therefore be framed and embossed in their mind.

The Second Visual Schema

The reason why: Unlike the previously incongruous visual schema, the visual is simple. It kindles a slightly calm feeling within the children as it has a lot of space, made up off only 3 elements – hand, fire and big, round, circle with a diagonal line separating the hand and the fire – and made up off bright, strong colours.
Children prefers bright colours as opposed to dull colours, and red comes as second to their colour preferences (Pettersson, 1989, p.251)

Top and Lower level of schema: Their Top level schema includes 1) their recently attained knowledge from the previous visual schema, about fire being scary, and 2) the big, red circle that they may have seen before as a ‘STOP’ sign, or ‘WARNING’ sign. The linking of the three visual signs: the fire, the hand and the big, red circle, act as their Lower level schema as:

‘DO NOT’ + ‘PLAY’ + with + ‘FIRE’.

Incongruity and congruity: This visual is highly congruous. Even though the visual requires them to think and make the connection between all the elements, but unlike the previous visual that creates unpleasantness in the children, enacts a sense of familiarity in the children as they are able to identify the visual to other normal warning signs they might have seen fro past experiences.

Overall, both visuals are related and play an important role in conveying the message:
1) The first visual act as a warning of the danger of fire:
2) The second visual as a safety measure and prevention


Reference:
Pettersson, R. (1989) Visuals for Information: Research and Practice. New Jersey: Educational Technology Publications

Tracey, Diane. H; Morrow, Lesley Mandel (2006) Lenses on Reading: An Introduction on Theories and Models. New York, NY, USA: Guilford Press.