Parker Lippstock

Dream Mirror
Effects of Training in Dream Recall and Dream Interpretation Skills on Dream Recall, Attitudes,
Dream Interpretation Outcome / Literature Review

Interpretation is the derivative of an individual’s recalled and pronounced personal experience of

something, both in the form of a record and an understanding. However, being able to interpret something
requires that something to be mostly solid and constant in the mind, as lack of clarity or even a total loss of
substantial data can drastically affect the conclusions the person would make. This is especially true of
dreams, as many people recall only key moments of their dreams whereas others fail to recall any notable
information. To interpret one’s dreams, they must be taught to remember them, and this is exactly what a
group of four researchers at the University of Maryland tried to test. In a study entitled Effects of Training in
Dream Recall and Dream Interpretation Skills on Dream Recall, Attitudes, Dream Interpretation Outcome, we
find Rochlen et al. discussing experiments they’ve run in trying to teach individuals how to recall and
interpret their dreams as well as share their thoughts on dreaming as a topic of interest. This study delves
into the methods and reasoning behind dream recall and how one can achieve it, and additionally, the
implication of their research plays fully into how dreams link to the inner self. Through their multiple
experiments, they will indicate how the individuals they tested performed in their progression in dream
recall as well as how it influenced their interpretation and overall view on dreams.

Rochlen and the other researchers made two hypotheses; the first focusing on building better
“dream recall-attitudes” and how that would lead to “greater dream recall and more positive attitudes
towards dreams” (Rochlen et al., 1999). The second would focus on “training in dream interpretation skills”
within dream interpretation sessions, leading to a greater outcome with the individual feeling “increased
levels of satisfaction, insight, and perceived gains” (Rochlen et al., 1999). There would be a total of forty-two
graduate students working to run this experiment, all with varying ethnicity and experience in the processes
of phycological counseling. On the other end, there were forty-six participants who would be the subjects of
these experiments and would ultimately be the tests for these hypotheses. Each of them were questioned on
how often they could recall their dreams and if they could recall them only after waking or if they were
capable of retaining the memories for later on. The authors also defined the scales they would be using to
evaluate the subjects as they went along, one of the key ones being the Gains From Dream Interpretation
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Scale, or GDI. This scale is used to determine a subject’s feelings towards the dream interpretation sessions
through open-ended questions in which the individual would respond with an option ranging from strong
agreement to strong disagreement.

The requirements of the experiment were simple yet certainly involved; each of the subjects were
instructed to “[keep] a dream diary for 6 weeks, [attend] two 1-hr training sessions, and [participate] in a 60-
to 90-min individual dream interpretation session” (Rochlen et al., 1999). These would aid in the development
of dream recall skills which would be necessary for the interpretation phase. Alongside this, the subjects
were taught a model of dream interpretation called the Hill Cognitive-Experiential model developed by Clara
E. Hill. The subjects were given “sample” dreams, which were simply collections of vague yet purposely
designed images that they would then need to make connections to their own lives with. After a few of these
kinds of sessions, the subject was then told to apply this mode of interpretation to dreams they had
recorded in their dream diary and any additional details they could recall from what they had written in each
entry. This allowed each subject to explore the theoretical and think about their dreams and the events that
occurred within them in a different, more analytical way.

The end result of these experiments revealed that most participants seemed more confident in
dream interpretation than in dream recall itself. Although small changes were observed through the use of
the dream diaries, it seems that there wasn’t any significant increase or improvement of dream recall or
feelings regarding dreams from those who had “below average levels of dream recall and attitudes towards
dreams” (Rochlen et al., 1999). To reiterate however, the area that received the most positive outcomes was
the individual dream interpretation sessions, indicating that it grabbed the attention of the subjects more
than all of the other experiments performed. The authors concluded by noting that while attitude towards
dreams hadn’t changed much, the use of the Hill Cognitive-Experiential and its basic requirements made it
easy or even enjoyable for the subjects to participate in these interpretation sessions.

This study gave a clear insight into dream interpretation, and their use of the Hill Cognitive-
Experiential model showed how interest in a dream could arise as individuals learn to compare recollections
to their own selves. In terms of how this impacts Dream Mirror, It seems that this study will act as not only
the presentation of a method of dream interpretation, but it will also influence how dream interpretation is
explained to the user and how they may think about it. This will certainly be instrumental in planning how to
present dream interpretation as well as clarify how a user should think of the definitions in Dream Mirror.
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Work Cited

Rochlen et al. (1999). Effects of Training in Dream Recall and Dream Interpretation Skills on Dream Recall,
Attitudes, Dream Interpretation Outcome. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 46(1), 27-34.