Psychology 21st Sept 2023

Chloe Chong

Lesson 1

Key Word- Correlation

Ex.

Q1) What type of experiment did D & K conduct in part 2 of their study (5m vs 15m)
- A lad experiment with a repeated measures effect.

Q2) What was the independent variable in D&K in part 1 (looking at dream recall in REM and nREM)
and in part 2 (5m vs 15m)
- In Pt1 it was whether the participant was woken up in REM or nREM sleep
- In Pt2 it was whether the participant was woken up 5 or 15 mins into REM sleep

Q3) Can you identify the DV in part 1 and the DV in part 2

- In Pt1 it is the detail of recollection of dream
- In Pt2 it is the accuracy of the dream length accuracy (5 or 15 mins)

EEG vs EOG

EEG- 2 or 3 electrodes on the scalp

EOG (Ocular)- 2 or more electrodes near the eye

Accuracy

Why does an experiment have to be controlled/ standardised?

- Other than the IV and the DV scientists don’t want another set of variables that might affect
the results (Extraneous variables EV)

*1950s- Equipment failure- the tape recorder broke for 26 recordings.

Lesson 2

Ex.

a) State what is meant by ‘standardisation’.

Controlling extraneous variables in the experiment so that there is a high degree of accuracy.

b) Identify 3 ways in which the laboratory experiment was standardised in this study.
1. The same doorbell was used to wake participants up.
2. In Pt2 they were woken either 5 or 15 mins into REM
3. They used the same conditions for sleep for all participants.
Psychology 21st Sept 2023
Chloe Chong

Pt 1- What are the results, make a graph

Pt 2- What are the results, make a graph

Are subjective estimates of dream duration related to the length of the REM period?

At first, the researchers asked participants to estimate their dream duration, however this was
considered to be too hard a task. The researchers decided to ask them whether they had been in the
REM stage for either 5 or 15 minutes. This was a more manageable task. Here is a table showing the
results:

- Participants responses were 88% accurate for 5-minute REM duration and 78% accurate for
15-minute REM duration.
- Although most participants were highly accurate (0-3 incorrect responses), DN was not. He
often found that he could only remember the end of his dream, so it seemed shorter than it
actually was.
- There was a significant positive correlation between REM duration and number of words in a
dream narrative. The r values varied between 0.4 to 0.71 for different participants.
- Dream narratives for very long durations were not much longer than those for 15 minutes.
The participants did report that they felt as though they had been dreaming for a long time,
suggesting that they couldn’t recall the early part of the dream.

Pt3- What are the results, make a graph

Do eye movement patterns in REM sleep represent the visual experience of the dream?

3 of the 9 movements showed periods of vertical eye movement.

Psychology 21st Sept 2023
Chloe Chong

The first participants dream included standing on the foot of a tall cliff and suing a hoist, The
participant reported looking up at climbers on various levels of the cliff and then looking down at the
hoist machinery.

The second participant recalled looking up and down while climbing a ladder.

The third participant’s dream reported playing basketball, looking up to see if he had scored and
looking down to pick up another bal.

These examples show a positive correlation between eye movement and the visual experience of the
dream.

Participants were woken after the persistence of a single eye movement pattern of more than one
minute and asked to report their dream.

The eye movement patterns were mostly vertical, horizontal, both vertical and horizontal, or with
very little or no movement at all.

Eye movement patterns were related to dream content, e.g., horizontal movements in a dream about
throwing tomatoes. Vertical ones in a dream about ladders and a few movements in dreams about
starting fixedly at something. In the 21 awakenings after a mixture of movements, the participants
were always looking at thing close to them, objects or people.