Rapid eye movements and visual imagery during sleep.

A number of early findings supported the notion that there is a correspondence between eye movements and the visual imagery of dreams. Subsequent studies, however, yielded contradictory results. It is suggested that eye movements might occasionally be related to the visual imagery of dreams, but that the notion of a constant isomorphic relationship between the 2 is untenable. It is also noted that REM bursts might correspond in other ways to dream content, i.e., as an integral and parallel part of the total picture of Stage 1 REM activation. (36 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Presleep mood and dream recall.

Studied evening mood rating sheets and dream diaries for 5 days during a 2-wk period, obtained from 67 college women. Dream recall at home was more likely to occur on mornings preceded by presleep mood ratings that were relatively negative; this was particularly true for infrequent dream recallers. Results fail to support repression hypotheses of dream recall that derive from Freud's "afterexpulsion" concept. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that presleep mood affects the salience, and thus the recallability, of the dream experience. Negative presleep mood was associated with more unpleasant dreams (characterized by threat, helplessness, and vulnerability), especially for Ss reporting lower overall self-confidence. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of training in dream recall and dream interpretation skills on dream recall, attitudes, and dream interpretation outcome.

Forty-two volunteer clients with below-average dream recall and attitudes toward dreams participated in training sessions focusing on either improving dream recall and attitudes toward dreams, building dream interpretation skills, or educating about counseling. After training, individual dream interpretation sessions were conducted. No significant differences were found among the 3 conditions in regard to dream recall, attitudes toward dreams, or client- or therapist-reported session outcome, but effect sizes suggested that participants in the skills condition gained more from sessions than did participants in the dream recall–attitudes condition. Session outcome for all volunteer clients was equivalent to those in previous studies of volunteer clients with no training, suggesting that training was not necessary and that these participants were able to benefit from single-session dream interpretation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex role orientation and dream recall.

Compared dreams of 27 male and 32 female undergraduates categorized as "masculine" or "feminine" using Femininity scores on the California Psychological Inventory. Masculine Ss were rated higher on a general measure of maleness ("agency") than feminine Ss. Feminine males were rated higher on a measure of femaleness ("communion") than masculine males. Masculine Ss, especially males, more often had dreams of aggression. Ss, especially males, with sex role orientation contrary to stereotype had more unpleasant dreams than Ss whose sex role was congruent. Questionnaire estimations of dream recall frequency were more accurate predictors of subsequent dream recall frequency for Ss, especially males, with sex role orientations contrary to stereotype. Results support the assumption that sex role orientation rather than biological gender plays a fundamental role in determining dream content, and that the development of sex role-related aspects of life-style is more problematic for males than females. (46 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality correlates of dream recall.

Used the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16 PF) to discriminate between those who frequently recall dreams and those who do not and to specify which traits contributed most to accuracy of discrimination. Discriminant analysis of 16 PF measures showed an almost perfect discrimination between 2 groups of undergraduates (n = 50), chosen by the diary method, as frequent and infrequent recallers. This result was substantially confirmed in a cross-validation sample of 40 Ss in which an overall accuracy of discrimination of 75% was achieved. 6 primary traits (Ego Strength, Guilt Proneness, Superego Strength, Parmia, Premsia, and Radicalism) were identified and confirmed by canonical analysis as contributing most to discrimination. Results indicate that the frequent recaller experiences less and the infrequent recaller experiences more intrapsychic conflict. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in dream recall.

Ss who typically fail to remember dreams at home (nonreporters) and Ss who frequently remember dreams (reporters) slept in the laboratory for 4 nights each. Gradual or abrupt awakenings were made at each EEG Stage-I REM (dream) period. Although nonreporters and reporters did not differ in REM-period frequency or EEG patterns during sleep, nonreporters did report dreaming less frequently following REM-period awakenings. Ss showed self-consistency in frequency of dream reporting and in type of failure to report. Some nonreporters typically failed to remember any content; others typically said they were awake and thinking. Comparisons among reporters and sub-groups of nonreporters for eye-movement frequency, arousal threshold, and dreamlike-report content indicate that it may be useful to distinguish different kinds of nonreporters. (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dream recall and dream recall failure: An arousal-retrieval model.

Proposes an arousal/retrieval model to account for difficulties in sleep learning and dream recall. The model is based on 2-stage memory theory, which assumes that information processing in a short-term memory store facilitates subsequent retrieval from long-term memory storage. It is proposed that the effectiveness of processing of target material is impaired during sleep. Thus, dreams and information contained in stimulus presentations to a sleeping person very likely can only be retrieved if an awakening occurs during the life of the short-term memory trace. It is further proposed that experiences occurring during or shortly after awakening compete with the target material for space in the limited-capacity processing system, with the most salient of the set favored in the competition. Interference and repression effects are assumed as additional factors in retrieval from long-term storage. (11/2 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Respiratory changes associated with rapid eye movements in normo- and hypercapnia during sleep

Rapid eye movements during rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep are associated with rapid, shallow breathing. We wanted to know whether this effect persisted during increased respiratory drive by CO2. In eight healthy subjects, we recorded electroencephalographic, electrooculographic, and electromyographic signals, ventilation, and end-tidal PCO2 during the night. Inspiratory PCO2 was changed to increase end-tidal PCO2 by 3 and 6 Torr. During normocapnia, rapid eye movements were associated with a decrease in total breath time by -0.71 +/- 0.19 (SE) s (P < 0.05) because of shortened expiratory time (-0.52 +/- 0.08 s, P < 0.001) and with a reduced tidal volume (-89 +/- 27 ml, P < 0.05) because of decreased rib cage contribution (-75 +/- 18 ml, P < 0.05). Abdominal (-11 +/- 16 ml, P = 0.52) and minute ventilation (-0.09 +/- 0.21 ml/min, P = 0.66) did not change. In hypercapnia, however, rapid eye movements were associated with a further shortening of total breath time. Abdominal breathing was also inhibited (-79 +/- 23 ml, P < 0.05), leading to a stronger inhibition of tidal volume and minute ventilation (-1.84 +/- 0.54 l/min, P < 0.05). We conclude that REM-associated respiratory changes are even more pronounced during hypercapnia because of additional inhibition of abdominal breathing. This may contribute to the reduction of the hypercapnic ventilatory response during REM sleep.     

Predicting the frequency of dream recall.

Tested the hypothesis that dream recallers would have better memory for visual stimuli than dream nonrecallers. 50 recaller and 50 nonrecaller undergraduates were given tests of short- and long-term memory, incidental memory, and a personality battery consisting of measures of anxiety, repression-sensitization, and internal-external control. Results indicate that the memory variables and the Ss' self-reported number of awakenings distinguished between recallers and nonrecallers, whereas personality measures did not. It is concluded that the most important variable in dream recall may be individual differences in memory ability rather than differences in personality per se. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward a theory of dream recall.

Examines evidence for 3 hypotheses of dream recall in studies of variables characteristic of presleep, sleep, and postsleep periods. Neither correlational nor experimental data show consistent support for the hypothesis that repression affects dream recall. Salience and interference concepts are strongly supported and if taken together with cognitive and motivational variables, suggest a promising model for dream recall based on interactions among situational, organismic, and individual difference factors. (117 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distractor interference during smooth pursuit eye movements.

When 2 targets for pursuit eye movements move in different directions, the eye velocity follows the vector average (S. G. Lisberger & V. P. Ferrera, 1997). The present study investigates the mechanisms of target selection when observers are instructed to follow a predefined horizontal target and to ignore a moving distractor stimulus. Results show that at 140 ms after distractor onset, horizontal eye velocity is decreased by about 25%. Vertical eye velocity increases or decreases by 1°/s in the direction opposite from the distractor. This deviation varies in size with distractor direction, velocity, and contrast. The effect was present during the initiation and steady-state tracking phase of pursuit but only when the observer had prior information about target motion. Neither vector averaging nor winner-take-all models could predict the response to a moving to-be-ignored distractor during steady-state tracking of a predefined target. The contributions of perceptual mislocalization and spatial attention to the vertical deviation in pursuit are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Task effects on eye movements during reading.

The present study examined how proofreading and reading-for-comprehension instructions influence eye movements during reading. Thirty-seven participants silently read sentences containing compound words as target words while their eye movements were being recorded. We manipulated word length and frequency to examine how task instructions influence orthographic versus lexical–semantic processing during reading. Task instructions influenced both temporal and spatial aspects of eye movements: The initial landing position in words was shifted leftward, the saccade length was shorter, first fixation and gaze duration were longer, and refixation probability was higher during proofreading than during reading for comprehension. Moreover, in comparison to instructions for reading for comprehension, proofreading instructions increased both orthographic and lexical–semantic processing. This became apparent in a greater word length and word frequency effect in gaze duration during proofreading than during reading for comprehension. The present study suggests that the allocation of attentional resources during reading is significantly modulated by task demands. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Estimating heading during eye movements

In eight experiments, we examined the ability to judge heading during tracking eye movements. To assess the use of retinal-image and extra-retinal information in this task, we compared heading judgments with executed as opposed to simulated eye movements. In general, judgments were much more accurate during executed eye movements. Observers in the simulated eye movement condition misperceived their self-motion as curvilinear translation rather than the linear translation plus eye rotation that was simulated. There were some experimental conditions in which observers could judge heading reasonably accurately during simulated eye movements; these included conditions in which eye movement velocities were 1 deg/sec or less and conditions which made available a horizon cue that exists for locomotion parallel to a ground plane with a visible horizon. Overall, our results imply that extra-retinal, eye-velocity signals are used in determining heading under many, perhaps most, viewing conditions.     

The word grouping hypothesis and eye movements during reading.

The distribution of landing positions and durations of first fixations in a region containing a noun preceded by either an article (e.g., the soldiers) or a high-frequency 3-letter word (e.g., all soldiers) were compared. Although there were fewer first fixations on the blank space between the high-frequency 3-letter word and the noun than on the surrounding letters (and the fixations on the blank space were shorter), this pattern did not occur when the noun was preceded by an article. R. Radach (1996) inferred from a similar experiment that did not manipulate the type of short word that 2 words could be processed as a perceptual unit during reading when the first word is a short word. As this different pattern of fixations is restricted to article-noun pairs, it indicates that word grouping does not occur purely on the basis of word length during reading; moreover, as the authors demonstrate, one can explain the observed patterns in both conditions more parsimoniously without adopting a word-grouping mechanism in eye movement control during reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inferred goals in narratives: Evidence from self-paced reading, recall, and eye movements.

Three convergent methodologies were used to investigate the generation and reinstatement of goals not explicitly stated in a text. Readers read paragraphs adapted from J. S. Huitema, S. Dopkins, C. M. Klin, and J. L. Myers's (1993) study, which conveyed a character's goal early in the text. The goal was either stated explicitly or implied. An event was described later in the text that was either consistent or inconsistent with the goal. Line-by-line reading data, recall for the narratives, and eye-movement data were collected. Evidence is presented that readers infer a character's goal online at the time the information is presented, and the inferred goal functions like an explicitly stated goal in online comprehension processes and in the resulting memory representation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of personality and presleep mood on dream recall.

Confirmed and extended previously reported evidence of a predictable association between presleep mood and dream recall. Of 81 college women who served as Ss, infrequent (but not frequent) dream recallers were more likely to recall dreams when presleep self-confidence was lowest than when it was highest for an individual S. This result directly contradicts the repression hypothesis of dream recall. In addition, for habitually low self-confident and "sensitizer" Ss only, the lowest self-confidence rating during a 5-day recording period was associated with unpleasant dream affect; the highest self-confidence rating was associated with pleasant dream affect. These findings support the hypothesis that the relationship between presleep mood and dream affect is modified by enduring S characteristics that reflect coping effectiveness. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Estimating heading during real and simulated eye movements

The ability to judge heading during tracking eye movements has recently been examined by several investigators. To assess the use of retinal-image and extra-retinal information in this task, the previous work has compared heading judgments with executed as opposed to simulated eye movements. For eye movement velocities greater than 1 deg/sec, observers seem to require the eye-velocity information provided by extra-retinal signals that accompany tracking eye movements. When those signals are not provided, such as with simulated eye movements, observers perceive their self-motion as curvilinear translation rather than the linear translation plus eye rotation being presented. The interpretation of the previous results is complicated, however, by the fact that the simulated eye movement condition may have created a conflict between two possible estimates of the heading: one based on extra-retinal solutions and the other based on retina-image solutions. In four experiments, we minimized this potential conflict by having observers judge heading in the presence of rotations consisting of mixtures of executed and simulated eye movements. The results showed that the heading is estimated more accurately when rotational flow is created by executed eye movements alone. In addition, the magnitude of errors in heading estimates is essentially proportional to the amount of rotational flow created by a simulated eye rotation (independent of the total magnitude of the rotational flow). The fact that error magnitude is proportional to the amount of simulated rotation suggests that the visual system attributes rotational flow unaccompanied by an eye movement to a displacement of the direction of translation in the direction of the simulated eye rotation.     

Mental imagery as revealed by eye movements and spoken predicates: A test of neurolinguistic programming.

Tested R. Bandler and J. Grinder's (1975, 1979) neurolinguistic programming theory that eye movement direction and spoken predicates are indicative of sensory modality of imagery. 39 undergraduates reported on modality, sequence, and vividness of images to questions that evoked either no images or visual, auditory, or kinesthetic images. Eye movement direction and spoken predicates were matched with sensory modality of the questions. Ss reported images in the 3 modes, but no relation between imagery and eye movements or predicates was found. The visual modality was dominant. Visual images were most vivid and often reported. Most Ss rated themselves as visual, and most spoken predicates were visual. Data are discussed in the context of an ever-growing literature that does not support Bandler and Grinder's model and in the context of the difficulties in interpreting the model itself. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Linguistic focus affects eye movements during reading

OBJECTIVE: To clarify the diagnostic significance of selective mutism (elective mutism in DSM-III-R). METHOD: Fifty children with selective mutism were evaluated systematically by means of semistructured clinical interviews and rating scales to obtain detailed diagnostic information. RESULTS: All 50 children met DSM-III-R criteria for social phobia or avoidant disorder and 24 (48%) had additional anxiety disorders. Clinical measures of anxiety and behavioral symptoms supported the presence of anxiety disorders as a characteristic of selectivity mute children. Only one case each of oppositional defiant disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder was found. CONCLUSIONS: Persistent selective mutism typically presents in the context of anxiety disorders.