Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Dement and Kleitman (1957)
- Key Terms
- REM
- Rapid eye
movement
- NREM
- Non rapid eye movement
- EEG
- A way of measuring the electrical activity in the brain
by using electrodes connected to the scalp
- Correlation
- The relationship
between to
variables.
- Aim
- To attempt to determine the relationship between eye
movement and dreaming
- There were 3 approaches:
- Approach 1
- To see whether ps were more
likely to remember their dreams
when woken during REM sleep
- Will people be more likely to report dreams if they are woken during REM sleep than periods or NREM sleep?
- Approach 2:
- To see whether the ps were more likely to
estimate how long they had been dreaming
for and whether their estimates correlated
with the length of time they had been in
REM sleep
- Can people accurately estimate the
duration of their dreaming?
- Approach 3:
- To see whether the content of the dream showed
a relation to the pattern of eye movement
- Is the direction of eye movement during REM sleep related to dream content?
- Procedure
- Laboratory experiment
- 7 males, 2 females all adults
- Told to avoid caffeine and alcohol
on the day of the experiment
- Reported to the sleep lab
just before their normal
bedtime
- Electrodes were attached near their
eyes and scalp to measure eye
movement and electrical activity in the
brain
- Attached to the
EEG machine
- Quiet dark room
- At certain times during the night
ps were woken by a doorbell
- To test dream
recall
- Recorded into a tape
recorder
- They had to sate whether they
had been dreaming and, if so their
dream content
- Findings
- Question 1
- All ps showed
periods of REM
- Length of REM increased
the longer the ps was asleep
- REM
occurred at
fairly regular
intervals
during the
night
- Average of the
group was 93
minutes
- More likely to have
dream recall when
woken in REM sleep
- Eye movement were not
constant during these periods
- They
happened in
'bursts of 1 or
2, up to 50 or
100
movements'
- Question 2
- Ps were mostly accurate with their estimation of dream
length
- Question 3
- Most ps had periods of both vertical and horizontal eye
movement
- Results support the idea that eye
movement is connected to dream
content
- Strengths
- Conducted in a
laboratory
- High levels of
control
- The researchers were able to control many
aspects of the experiment
- Makes it easier to draw
conclusions
- The study used EGG machines which study
brain activity
- Allows for precise measurement to
be taken
- Weaknesses
- The study was carried out in
laboratory
- This lacks ecological validity