Williams (key study) (sleep and Dreaming) Flashcards

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1
Q

What was the background?

A

The researchers wanted to find out if dreams (which occur during REM), would be different from fantasies (which occur while awake)

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2
Q

What was the aim?

A

The aim was to assess the bizarreness in dreams and fantasies as a way of showing support for the activation-synthesis hypothesis of dreaming.

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3
Q

What was the design?

A
  • Natural experiment
  • Self report
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4
Q

What was the independent variable?

A

People’s dreams and fantasies

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5
Q

Who were the participants?

A
  • 12 students enrolled in a biopsychology course at Harvard
  • 2 male, 10 female
  • Aged 23-45
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6
Q

What were the materials?

A
  • Writing materials for participants to record dreams and fantasies
  • A scale for measuring bizarreness of experiences
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7
Q

What was the procedure?

A
  • Participants were asked to record any dreams and fantasies they remembered
  • A total of 60 dream and 60 fantasy reports were selected from the sample based on length (more than 5 lines) and because they described a visual experience.
  • In total, 120 reports were selected for qualitative analysis.
    -The reports were divided into sentences.
  • Each sentence was rated based on:
    Plot (A), Thoughts of dreamer/character (B), Emotion of dreamer/character (C), Ad hoc (D).
  • Then each sentence was rated on:
    Discontinuity (1), Incongruity (2), Uncertainty (3), Not bizarre (0).
  • After rating, the sentence would have a score (Eg: A2)
  • The bizarreness was calculated for each report.
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8
Q

How were extraneous variables controlled?

A
  • There were 3 judges.
  • The judges didn’t know whether they were evaluating a dream or a fantasy.
  • Judges worked independently.
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9
Q

What were the results?

A
  • Judges showed good inter-rater reliability (80%)
  • There was a significant difference between scores for dreams and fantasies.
  • The biggest difference between dreams and fantasies was plot discontinuity.
  • 7/12 participants had dreams with significantly higher bizarreness scores than fantasies.
  • Judges could assess whether a report was a dream or fantasy with 88.7% accuracy.
  • Dreams were always set in remote times or places while fantasies were equally divided between remote and current environments.
  • Dreams always included more than one character.
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9
Q

What were the conclusions?

A
  • Dream bizarreness is the direct cognitive correlate of neuronal activity in REM sleep. This is because dreams are more bizarre.
  • Both trained and untrained judges could distinguish dreams from fantasies with almost 90% accuracy, suggesting that they are very different.
  • Data did show some overlap of cognitive features between inattentive waking and sleep. This was explained as when someone is on the sleep-wake boundary, parts of the brain become sensorially disconnected and fire randomly.
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10
Q

What were the criticisms?

A
  • The study relied on self report, which is unreliable due to social desirability.
  • The difference in scores may be down to variabilities in reporting.
  • Lack of control over independent variable.
  • The sample was ungeneralizable as there were only 12 participants and only 2 males.
  • The results may lack construct validity as dreams are a complex phenomena and reducing them to numbers is an oversimplification.
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