BIOLOGICAL: Dement and Kleitman Flashcards
what were the aims?
to investigate:
whether dream recall differs between REM and nREM sleep
if there is a positive correlation between the participants estimate of the dream duration and the length of REM period
if eye movement patterns are related to dream content
what is the EEG?
records electrical activity in the nerve and muscle cells using large electrodes
what is the research method and design?
lab experiment
1st aim: repeated measures design
2nd aim: correlation
3rd aim: self-reports
what was the independent variable?
REM or nREM sleep
what was the dependent variable?
dream recall
what was the sample?
7 males and 2 females
5 studied in depth and 4 to confirm results
what were the controls?
ate normally
no caffeine or alcohol
arrived at the lab before their normal bedtime
slept in a dark, quiet room
electrodes attached to head, gathered in a ponytail
all woken up by same doorbell
asked to describe if they had a dream
what was the procedure for aim 1?
participants were woken from REM or nREM sleep
immediately after being woken, participants had to state whether they had a dream or not in a recording device
if yes, they would describe it
the experimenter would occasionally enter to ask further questions
what was the procedure for aim 2?
participants were woken up after 5 or 15 minutes into REM sleep
they had to guess the duration (5 or 15)
the number of words were counted
the more narrative words, the longer the dream duration (15 not 5)
what was the procedure for aim 3?
direction of eye movement was detected using EOG participants were woken after a single pattern had lasted for more than one minute they were asked to report their dream eye movement patters were: mainly vertical mainly horizontal both vertical and horizontal little to no movement
they compared the eye movement to the eye movement of awake participants
what were the general findings?
uninterrupted dream stages:
lasted 3-50 mins
longer later in the night
bursts of 2-100 REM’s
cycles from 1 REM to the other’s length was 70 minutes
when woken up from nREM, returned to nREM
when woken up from REM, returned to nREM
what are the results for aim 1?
woken up in REM:
152/191 recalled a dream
39/191 didn’t recall a dream
woken up in nREM:
11/160 recalled a dream
149/160 din’t recall a dream
what are the results from aim 2?
5 mins: 88% accuracy
15 mins: 78% accuracy
REM duration and number or words in description were positively correlated
what are the results from aim 3?
vertical eye movement:
climbing a ladder
grabbing a basketball and shooting at the next
horizontal eye movement:
two people throwing tomatoes at each other
very little to no eye movement:
staring
mixed eye movement:
talking to a group of people
what were the conclusions?
dreams occur in REM sleep only
eye movement correlates to dream content
dreams happen in real time
