Human Sciences Press, Inc., New York City

Dreaming, Vol 6, No. 1, March 1996

Vestibular Dreams: The Effect of Rocking on Dream Mentation
Kenneth Leslie and Robert Ogilvie
Page 1

Age Changes in Dream Recall in Adulthood
Leonard M. Giambra, Rex E. Jung, and Alicia Grodsky
Page 17

Raters' Abilities to Identify Individuals Reporting Sexual Abuse from Nightmare Content
Angela DeDonato, Kathryn Belicki, and Marion Cuddy
Page 33

A Psycholinguistic Method for Analyzing Two Modalities of Thought in Dream Reports
Maria Casagrande, Cristiano Violani, and Mario Bertini
Page 43

An Empirical Investigation into the Day-Residue and Dream-Lag Effects
Clinton J.G. Marquardt, Richard A. Bonato, and Robert F. Hoffmann
Page 57

Kenneth Leslie and Robert Ogilvie
Vestibular Dreams: The Effect of Rocking on Dream Mentation
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 6(1) 1-16, Mar 1996.

Abstract:

The study investigates the proposed link between vestibular activation and dream lucidity. In the experiment, subjects spent two consecutive nights sleeping in a hammock in the sleep lab. For each night, during the second, third, and fourth REM sleep periods, the hammock was either stationary (control condition), or rocked at a constant frequency (experimental condition) stimulating the subject's vestibular system. In all conditions the subject was awakened after ten minutes of REM sleep and asked to provide a mentation report. Each report was later analyzed on a number of scales (total word count, vestibular imagery, self-reflectiveness, categorization on a mentation continuum, and bizarreness). Physiological measures such as REM density and EEG power were also analyzed. A rocking by time interaction was found: rocking increased lucid mentation during early morning REM periods, but had little effect on the already high degree of lucid mentation during late morning REM periods. Physiological measures showed little differentiation between conditions, with the exception of a significantly high incidence of nystagmoid-like compensatory phasic eye-movements in the rocking condition. These results suggest that vestibular activation during REM sleep can influence dream mentation, specifically, dream self-reflectiveness and vestibular imagery.

Key words: lucid dreams; vestibular; rocking; nystagmus; REM

Leonard M. Giambra, Rex E. Jung, and Alicia Grodsky
Age Changes in Dream Recall in Adulthood
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 6(1) 17-31, Mar 1996.

Abstract:

Dream recall was measured retrospectively with the Night Dreaming Scale of the Imaginal Processes Inventory. Evidence supports a high degree of correspondence among methods which assess dreaming frequency. A cross-sectional sample (17-92 years old, n = 2328) found fewer dreams recalled with increasing age. Women recalled more dreams and showed a less rapid decrease in frequency than men. Longitudinal changes (n = 333) over 6 to 8 years were not wholly consistent with cross-sectional age differences. We found many fewer recalled dreams in senescence. However, the reduction in recalled dreams began well before senescence. Explanations based on dream saliency, long- and short-term memory failure, levels of REM sleep, and degree of spontaneous information processing were considered.

Key words: dreams; dream recall; age; aging

Angela DeDonato, Kathryn Belicki, and Marion Cuddy
Raters' Abilities to Identify Individuals Reporting Sexual Abuse from Nightmare Content
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 6(1) 33-41, Mar 1996.

Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to examine raters' abilities to detect a history of sexual abuse from nightmare reports. Seventy-five university students were given 28 nightmare reports from women: 14 reporting a history of sexual abuse and 14 reporting no abuse. The students were randomly assigned to three instruction conditions: one group was given no information about the characteristics of sexual abuse reports, while two groups were given either brief or expanded descriptions. The raters were then asked to make a judgment about whether or not each dreamer had been sexually abused. Following this task, they completed a questionnaire concerning demographic information and their own experiences with sexual, physical and/or emotional abuse. In general, raters were able to sort the nightmare reports at a level well above chance. Furthermore, instruction condition and characteristics of the raters were unrelated to accuracy. However, most raters underestimated the number of abuse reports, with men showing greater underestimation than women. The overall results indicate that even single reports of nightmares can yield clues to a dreamer's reported history. However, they cannot be used as a "diagnostic test," given the rates of both false positive and false negative errors.

Key words: nightmares; dreams; abuse; sexual abuse

Maria Casagrande, Cristiano Violani, and Mario Bertini
A Psycholinguistic Method for Analyzing Two Modalities of Thought in Dream Reports
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 6(1) 43-55, Mar 1996.

Abstract:

Following the general idea of a substantial bidimensionality of mind, a cognitive psycholinguistic model is proposed attempting to describe how two thinking modalities – named Y and X may contribute to the production of a dream report. Based on this model, two sets of syntactical-lexical categories were defined whose counts, divided for report length, should indicate the contribution of the two modalities to the verbal report of the dream. Preliminary results, based on the analysis of dream reports contributed by 70 subjects, confirmed the factorial validity of the Y and X measures. Comparisons of REM and sleep onset reports confirm that Y and X factorial indices are sensitive to discriminate state dependent characteristic of sleep mentation.

Key words: REM dream reports; sleep onset dream report; psycholinguistics; linguistic analysis; bidimensional model of thought; sleep mentation

Clinton J.G. Marquardt, Richard A. Bonato, and Robert F. Hoffmann
An Empirical Investigation into the Day-Residue and Dream-Lag Effects
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 6(1) 57-65, Mar 1996.

Abstract:

Detailed information, including dream reports and questionnaires on the dreams, was collected from 17 female and 11 male undergraduates (mean age = 20.6 years; range: 19-31 years) as part of a two week investigation into day-residue and dream-lag phenomena. Eligibility for participation was based upon a self-reported dream recall frequency of three or more dreams per week. It was hypothesized that the day-residue and dream-lag effects would be supported by an examination of subject-rated dreams and residues. In addition, it was hypothesized that subdivisions of the day-residue temporal rating would provide a more accurate representation of residue frequency. A last hypothesis explored the possibility that the dream experience-dream recording interval would be correlated with the number of residues reported. Results directly support the existence of a day-residue effect, while only indirectly supporting a dream-lag effect. The subdivisions of the day-residue temporal category implied that instantaneous incorporations of physical stimuli do occur and that a period of 2 hours before bed yields a high hourly rate of incorporation. No correlation between the dream experience-dream recording interval and the number of residues reported was found. Implication for mnemonic dream sources are discussed.

Key Words: dreams; day-residue; dream-lag; dream incorporation; past events.