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
