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Our two-track mind continues to monitor our environment while we sleep. A sen-
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AP Science Practice sory stimulus — a particular odor or a phone’s ringing — may be instantly and ingeniously
Research woven into the dream story. In a classic experiment, researchers lightly sprayed cold water
PRACTICE In the experiment in which on dreamers’ faces (Dement & Wolpert, 1958). Compared with sleepers who did not get the
researchers sprayed water on cold-water treatment, these people were more likely to dream about a waterfall, a leaky roof,
the faces of sleeping individuals, or even about being sprayed by someone.
Research Methods & Design the independent variable (the So, could we learn a foreign language by hearing it played while we sleep? If only. While
(SP 2) factor that is manipulated by the sleeping, we can learn to associate a sound with a mild electric shock (and to react to the sound
investigator) was the cold-water
accordingly). We can also learn to associate a particular sound with a pleasant or unpleasant
(10 minutes) Pause and do a treatment. Can you identify the odor (Arzi et al., 2012). But we do not remember recorded information played while we are
dependent variable (the outcome
research review in the context of that is measured)? soundly asleep (Eich, 1990; Wyatt & Bootzin, 1994). In
dreams with your students. Ask fact, anything that happens during the 5 minutes just
before sleep is typically lost from memory (Roth et al.,
them to identify the dependent 1988). This explains why people with sleep apnea, who
variable in Dement and Wolpert’s repeatedly awaken with a gasp and then immediately
“water spray” study. (It’s the dream fall back to sleep, do not recall these episodes. Ditto for
someone who awakens momentarily, sends a text mes-
content.) Ask them why this study sage, and the next day can’t remember doing so. It also
is an experiment. (It’s because explains why dreams that momentarily awaken us are
the researchers manipulated the mostly forgotten by morning. To remember a dream,
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Not for redistribution.
get up and stay awake for a few minutes.
independent variable.)
Why We Dream
In his landmark book The Interpretation of Dreams,
Sigmund Freud offered what he thought was “the
TEACH 1.5-10 most valuable of all the discoveries it has been my
Teaching Tip Meredith Southard/Cartoon Stock good fortune to make.” He proposed that dreams
provide a psychic safety valve that discharges other-
Although students are fascinated by wise unacceptable feelings. Freud viewed a dream’s
manifest content (the apparent and remembered
dream analysis, the psychoanalytic story line) as a censored, symbolic version of its
theory of dreams is outside the scope latent content, the unconscious drives and wishes
(often erotic) that would be threatening if expressed
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of the AP exam. This theory was “I’d like to extend a special welcome to those of you who are joining us for the first directly. Thus, a gun might be a disguised represen-
time, as part of a nightmare you’re having.”
popularized by Sigmund Freud, who tation of a penis.
Freud considered dreams the key to understanding our inner conflicts. However, his
believed that dreams were the “royal critics say it is time to wake up from Freud’s dream theory, which they regard as a sci-
road” to the unconscious, shedding entific nightmare. Legend has it that even Freud, who loved to smoke cigars, acknowl-
light on the forbidden thoughts and edged that “sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar.” Freud’s wish-fulfillment theory of dreams
has largely given way to other theories. “There is no reason to believe any of Freud’s
feelings we keep hidden from our- Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
specific claims about dreams and their purposes,” observed dream researcher William
selves and the world. However, there Domhoff (2003).
is scant scientific support for this To file away memories. The information-processing perspective proposes that
theory. Emphasize to students that dreams help sift, sort, and fix (consolidate) the day’s experiences in our memory. Some
research supports this view. When tested the day after learning a task, people who were
most dream interpretation books on deprived of both slow-wave and REM sleep did not do as well as those who had slept
the market today are not based on undisturbed (Stickgold, 2012). Other studies have shown similar memory lapses for new
scientific testing and shouldn’t be material among people awakened every time they began REM sleep (Empson & Clarke,
1970; Karni & Sagi, 1994).
used as evaluation tools. Brain scans confirm the link between REM sleep and memory. The brain regions that
were active as rats learned to navigate a maze, or as people learned to perform a visual-
discrimination task, became active again later during REM sleep (Louie & Wilson, 2001;
110 Unit 1 Biological Bases of Behavior
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