Cognitive Explanation of sleep and Dreams Flashcards
1
Q
What does information processing do?
A
- Sleep and dreaming is used to process information
- To consolidate memories
- To solve problems
- To reorganise memories
2
Q
Learning and Memory
A
SWS consolidates declarative memories (Tucker et al., 2006) -Pps learned -Word pairs -Tested 6 hours later 3 Groups -No sleep - Worst on word par task -SWS only - Improvement on word-pair task -REM group - No improvement
3
Q
Sleep and memory
A
- REM consolidates non-declarative memories e.g procedural (Mendick, Nakayama, and stick gold, 2003)
- Pps learned at 9 am: Visual discrimination task (spot the different orientation of lines)
- Tested 10 hours later
- Some allowed sleep
- Those who entered REM performed better later
- No improvement in the SWS/ no sleep groups
4
Q
Links to…
A
The reorganization theory (Crick and Mitchison 1983)
5
Q
Conclusion of memory consolidation
A
-Sleep seems to be an important part of consolidating our memories
-Different stages of sleep may be important for strengthening different types of memories
-SWS may enhance declarative memories
-REM may enhance non-declarative and emotional memories
But why, what’s actually happening?
-Sleep may simply allow extra rehearsal
-It may also allow us to process things more deeply