Lecture 21: Mysteries of Psychology Flashcards
what was the inspiration/motivation for the study (HW reading)
Aimed at determining whether the apparent relationships between media exposure and reports of colored dreaming in the US holds cross-culturally
Interested in exploring what aspects of media exposure were best related to variations in dream report (childhood vs present exposure, frequency of exposure, and the relative importance of the absence of colored media vs the presence of black and white media)
even if the media did not change our actual dreams, they may have been a main cause of our change in ____ about our dreams (HW reading)
opinion
what were the 3 groups in the study? (HW reading)
- technologically advanced group: college students at the University of Science and Technology in China (USTC) in Hefei which attracts mostly urban students of pretty high socioeconomic status
- intermediate group: college students at Anhui University in Hefei which attracts mostly students from the rural areas of Anhui province
- least technologically advanced: high school students in rural Anhui town
how did Version 2 differ from Version 1 of the Questionnaire? (HW reading)
Version 1: Do you see colors in your dreams? –> very frequently, frequently, occasionally, rarely, and never
Version 2: Do you dream in color or black and white? –> color, black and white, both, neither, don’t know
describe the results of the study (HW reading)
- respondents in the groups with the longest exposure to colored TV and movies tended to report the most colored dreaming (confirmed the main hypothesis of the study)
- respondents with a mainly urban childhood reported significantly more colored dreaming than respondents raised in rural areas
- the age of first regular exposure to colored TV and movies was negatively correlated with report of color in dreams
what is the main conclusion of the study (HW reading)
the questionnaire did not reveal genuine variation in the rates of colored dreaming between individuals or groups BUT the researchers do think that their results support the hypothesis that OPINIONS about color in dreams vary between groups and this variation is related to group exposure to colored film media
what is one interesting feature of the data and what does it suggest? (HW reading)
the strong between groups relationships coupled with the poor within-group relationships
- ie. there are clear and consistent differences in responses BTEWEEN DISTINCT groups (rural vs urban, age of frequent exposure to colored media, etc…) BUT the individual differences WITHIN groups did not strongly correlate with the reported phenomenon
–> suggests that the phenomenon in question is a cultural phenomenon rather than an individual one
aka whether you THINK you dream in color or in black and white depends not so much on your individual exposure, past or present, to black and white or colored media as on the GENERAL views of dreaming current in your subgroup
what does the researchers suggest about dreams and colors that extend beyond the study? (HW reading)
Researchers think it is unlikely that many people actually dream in black and white, but they do think it is an open question of whether our dreams are as thoroughly colored as most contemporary english speakers appear to think
Dreams may be neither colored nor black and white, leaving the colors of the most objects unspecified
when you don’t sleep…(3 things)
your attention gets worse
your driving gets worse
when you don’t sleep for a long enough time you die
explain how you die from lack of sleep and how we know this
When you don’t sleep, you get sick easily, and then you die from the sicknesses
learned this from nonhuman animal studies
explain the rat sleep deprivation study
Rats are placed on a rotating platform or similar device.
When one rat shows signs of falling asleep (detected by EEG or behavior), the platform moves, forcing it to stay awake.
A second rat is present as a control, experiencing the same environmental conditions but allowed to sleep.
symptoms of the sleep deprived rats:
- increased food consumption but still losing weight
- yellowish fur
–> eventually the sleep deprived rat dies
control: The second rat can sleep, remains relatively healthy, and does not exhibit the same symptoms.
This indicates that sleep deprivation itself, not the environmental stressors, causes the observed effects.
electroencephalography (EEG)
a technique to record electrical activity in the brain: measures the brain’s electrical signals (aka brainwaves) which are generated by neurons firing
how does your brain look when it is awake and attentive?
low amplitude, fast, irregular beta waves
how does your brain look when it is awake but non-attentive
large, regular alpha waves
describe the stages of sleep (2 categories)
stage 1 (non REM sleep)
stage 2-4 (REM sleep)
describe stage 1 of sleep
brief transition when first falling asleep
theta waves
you may experience the sudden JERKING of body parts
describe stage 2-4 of sleep
“slow-wave” sleep
delta waves
deep sleep stage but you don’t stay constantly in this deep stage since sleep is a CYCLE
characteristics of REM sleep
REM = rapid eye movement
- brain looks pretty similar to how the brain looks when it is awake
when dreams usually happen
what waves do you see for sleep stage 1 vs sleep stages 2-4?
stage 1: theta waves
stage 2-4: delta waves (slower waves)
Ambien and its side effects
a drug that helps people fall asleep but no one really knows how it works and how it makes people go to sleep
paradoxical side effects:
- sleep walk
- sleep talk
- sleep drive (more rare)
–> people don’t remember that they did any of this the day after
the mysteries of psychology (2)
no one knows WHY we sleep
no one knows WHY we dream
describe the mystery of psychology: no one knows why we sleep and some possible theories (2)
Why are we the type of creatures that need sleep (why would evolution design us so that we need to be unconscious for 1/3 of our life)
some possible theories:
- nighttime is dangerous –> body protects you by making you tired and use less energy
- reparative aspect/benefit of sleep: repairing a really complicated machine is a lot easier to do when that machine is turned off (aka humans and sleeping)
what DO we dream about? (aka what are the 4 patterns that we seen from studies on the contents of dreams from DreamBank)
Most dreams are bad
Men tend to have more aggressive dreams than women
People in tribal societies have more aggressive dreams than people in industrialized societies
Americans have more aggressive dreams that europeans
how can we help ourselves remember our dreams better?
keeping a dream diary (WRITING down your dreams helps you remember them better → also helps with lucid dreaming)
Sometimes we wake up and we start to recall the dream, but then you start forgetting halfway through → a way to help improve this is by writing down your dreams
lucid dreaming
phenomenon where the person becomes aware that they are in a dream while the dream is still ongoing
sometimes the people can even control the dream’s content, environment, and outcomes in lucid dreaming
what do we WANT to dream about?
Women: romance and adventure
Men: sex with strangers
~10% of dreams are actually sexual
what percentage of dreams are sexual?
~10%
What is the most COMMON dream?
being chased by something
–> however no one knows WHY this is the most common dream
WHY do we dream? (possible theory)
sleeping and dreams improves our memories
–> dreaming plays a role in SOLIDIFYING and improving our memories (the reason we know this is through nonhuman studies (rat maze study)
describe the rat maze study on memory and dreams
Rat maze study: rats who run in mazes in these labs have DREAMS about running in mazes as well since their brain activity during sleep mirrors the patterns observed while they navigate the maze
While a rat runs through a maze, distinct patterns of place cell activation corresponds to different locations in the maze
–> These SAME patterns of activation are observed during the rat’s sleep, particularly during the periods of sleep that correspond to when dreams occur (REM sleep)
This suggests that the rat’s brain is rehearing the memory of navigating the maze when asleep/dreaming
place cells
specialized neurons in the brain’s hippocampus that activate in response to specific physical locations
- distinct patterns of place cell activation corresponds with different locations in the maze
what is an example of the question: do we really know the contents of our dreams?
How do we know that we actually correctly remember our dreams?
Is there a way to tell what you think you dreamed about is the same as what you actually dreamed about?
→ an example of this is dreaming and colors
According to Tapia et al (1953), what percentage of people reported dreaming in color?
9%
describe the contradiction/mystery behind dreaming and colors
long time before 1950s: ancient philosophers (Aristotle, Epicurus, Descartes) reported dreaming in COLOR
in the 1950s: majority of people reported dreaming in BLACK AND WHITE
- Dreaming in color was even thought to be a clinical symptom during this time period
nowadays: most people report dreaming in COLOR
–> why is this the case??
give the hypothesis to explain the switching of reports on colored dreams (before 1950s, 1905s, current day)
hypothesis that during the 1950s, there was a rise of black and white TV and media so there might be a connection between believing you dream in black and white and being exposed to black and white media
what are 3 possible options of what is happening (the switching of reports on colored dreaming) and which one is the most plausible (correct) answer?
The color of dreams has actually changed over time
People were lying about the color of their dreams
Correct: We don’t really know what our own dreams are like!
explain the pirate ship dream example
Ie. A dream similar to you are on a pirate ship and something bad happens and the captain forces you to walk the plank, and then you get pushed off the plank, and then you hit the water in the dream, but then in real life, you wake up and get splashed with water by your friends/mother
explain the fire truck and alarm dream example
Ie. A dream where you are in a hot room and there is a fire truck/alarm and when you wake up you realize it is your alarm clock going off (the alarm sounds got incorporated into your dream)
what are the 2 theories as to why we have dreams like the pirate ship and the fire truck/alarm?
aka The dream seems to have ANTICIPATED the splash/alarm clock and weaved it into the dream narrative seamlessly
→ why is that and how did the dream know to do that?
- Because of how our brains process time in dreams, the event FELT like it was a part of a longer, preexisting storyline
- Maybe the brain RETROSPECTIVELY constructed the dream to make sense of the stimulus (ie. upon being splashed/hearing alarm in real life, your brain invents a memory of the dream that justifies the real-life sensation)
describe 2 things that are interesting about the pirate ship and fire truck/alarm dream examples
- your dream is incorporating something from the real word
- more interestingly… how did your dream know to be in a pirate ship or be in a hot room in anticipation for the water splashing your face
- The dream seems to have ANTICIPATED the splash/alarm clock and weaved it into the dream narrative seamlessly → why is that and how did the dream know to do that?
Why did we end on a lecture about the mysteries of psychology?
a reminder that psychology is a science and is an incomplete science
what is the main takeaway from this lecture?
dreams are still a mystery
