In 1996, Roussy et al. reported a study which failed to demonstrate the predictability of REM dream content from presleep ideation. The current study was designed to further test this predictability by using a larger sample of REM dream content and waking ideation. Thirteen young-adult female university students reported three REM dreams on each of four laboratory nights spaced at weekly intervals. On two of the study days, waking Thought Samples (TS) were recorded by participants at five randomly selected times. On the two other days, participants recorded their five most Significant Concerns (SC) prior to going to sleep at the laboratory. In a within-participant ranking task, two student peers had to read each item which consisted of the waking ideation sample for one night (WI) for one participant and the four dream sets (DS) for this same participant. Their task for each of these items was to rank the 4 DS from 1 to 4 as they believed them to be most likely related to the WI (rank 1) or least likely related to the WI (rank 4). For this task, there were two items for each of 12 participants. It was hypothesized that a dream set would receive a rank closer to 1 when it was the target than when it served as a foil. In a within-participant matching task, ten student peers were given the 4 dream sets and 4 waking ideation samples separately for each participant. Judges were asked to match each DS with one of the WI, thus making 4 pairs. In the between-participant matching task, these same ten judges were given 12 items. For each item, they were asked to match 4 dream sets from different participants with their corresponding waking ideation samples. For the ranking task, a three-way mixed ANOVA (2 judges - between, 2 waking ideation conditions: TS & SC - within, 2 dream conditions: target & nontarget - within) revealed that there were no significant differences between ranks given to target or foil dreams, and this in both the TS and SC conditions, as well as by both judges. Chi-square values for both the within- and between-participant matching task were not significant (.047 and .096 respectively, p < .99). The observed number of matches was therefore not significantly different from what was expected by chance. These results are consistent with those of our earlier study and suggest that it is not possible for non-clinically trained judges to match REM dream content with waking ideation. Further analyses conducted with a clinical psychologist serving as judge demonstrated that she was also unable to complete the tasks at greater than chance levels. It therefore seems that the relationship between waking and dreaming is not as obvious and predictable as has been believed. Rather, this study supports the cognitive position that dreams appear to randomly integrate elements from waking life and do not seem to give priority to immediately preceding experiences and concerns.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/8790 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Roussy, Francine. |
| Contributors | De Koninck, J., |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 134 p. |
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