Williams (key study) (sleep and Dreaming)

Question 1

What was the background?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

What was the aim?

Answer 2

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

Question 3

What was the design?

Answer 3

• Natural experiment
• Self report

Question 4

What was the independent variable?

Answer 4

People’s dreams and fantasies

Question 5

Who were the participants?

Answer 5

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

Question 6

What were the materials?

Answer 6

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

Question 7

What was the procedure?

Answer 7

• 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.

Question 8

How were extraneous variables controlled?

Answer 8

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

Question 9

What were the results?

Answer 9

• 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.

Question 9

What were the conclusions?

Answer 9

• 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.

Question 10

What were the criticisms?

Answer 10

• 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.