Thread: Dreams And Memory

First of all I salute you all, nice work on this forum.
Now, the subject of this topic is about the relation between dreams and memory. Maybe there are ohter topics on the subject, but I have a theory regarding this aspect and I want to find out what you think about it.

I will present the three major hypotheses:
1. dreams take place like a form of short-term memory; in a cognitivist perspective, short-term memory eguals somehow the working memory (WM), meaning the activated part from the long-term memory (LTM). So, I think dreams are a form of working memory, that is some activated stuff from the LTM. That seems to me logic, in a way: would explain why dreams are so much forgotten upon mornings awakening, why there are so long dreams reports when awakening from a dream (like REM reports, when you know for sure the person is dreaming, of course, there are dreams in other stahges too, bot more difficult to "track down"), it would explain why those interested in dreaming can educate their memory, why differently coding the dream means more "remembering" (for example, repeting it verbally, not only thinking of its course), why things that are important or novel for the person are remembered more (accurately) than casual things...

2. a) dreams are part of the implicit memory, meaning that kind of memory bearing information that are often (but not necessarily) nondecalarative, autonomic, not under conscious control. Now, I am not refering to procedural memory, that is considered implicit (rinding a bike, writing), but to more "pure implicit memory" - for example, knowing that a stove might burn and automatically using that info, or knowing that a building must have more than 1 meter height, or that water is wet, things we learn involuntarily and that are mostly part of our knowledge about the world, somehow semantic memory
b) dreams are not sequences of episodic memory, because we don't dream events that happend in the past in the same exact way they took place, we rather "combine" that events with somethin else... From this standpoint, because they're not episodic, dreams are in a major way part of semantic memory (their material is more likely semantic) - and semantic knowledge is rather implicit, as far as I know...

3. dreams are in fact made of cognitive schemata and scenarios. So, it is easily understandable why a dream might seem bizzare and random but, in the same time, it has a good plot and narrative line that makes it all be a whole rather than just glimpses of images/sounds etc that have no connection... This is why dreams ar so strange, seemingly with no relation at all beetwen elements, yet unitary. Conforming to the structure of cognitive schemata, there is a strong core at the top, representing generalised yet synthesized knowledge (concepts) and, at the basis of the structure of knowledge, there can be generated somehow random stimuli, that have though a connection with the core (for example, the concept classroom: the strong core is the "classroom", meaning a room (4 walls, floor, ceiling) with a blackboard and desks and chairs; it generates all the other components of the scheme; depending of you imagination, you can decorate the classroom in any way you want, as long as their main particularities remain the same (serving as a room for teaching); it does not matter what color it is, how many windows it has, how many desks, etc...). The same with dreams... The strong core is constituted by their plot narrative, and the basis by all the elements that come and build among the plot the structure of the dream...



My problem is that I want somehow to test this presumptions of mine, but I don't have a good scientific criterion/way to do it. Some simple way remains that of the questionnaire. But is also very not scientific... Anyway, for the first 2 hypothesis, I was thinking of asking this 2 questions (I would appreciate if you would have some time to answer them):

1. Upon definitive awakening in the morning, you tend to remember more dreams from the just passed night if:
a) you wake up (accidentally or not) during the night
b) you sleep without (remembering) awaking till morning

2. If you wake up during the night, you tend to remember more dreams from the current night if:
a) you woke up on your own
b) you were awakend, but in a gentle/undisruptive way
c) you were awakened suddenly/brutally by external stimuli (phone ring, TV, droping of something, barking etc)

3. If you wake up during the night, you tend to remember more dreams from the current night if:
a) you fell asleep very quick (not got out of bed)
b) you stayed up a longer time before getting asleep again, but not got out of bed
c) you stayed up a longer time before getting asleep again, got out of bed, did something around the room/house

4. When dreaming about real past events, you:
a) dreamed about them in the exact manner they happend (same place, same time, same characters involved)
b) dreamed abou them in a somehow modified version (what was changed? place, time, characters, mood etc...)

I see some of you are very serious persons interested in dreaming and psychology. I would really like to know your opinion about this, indifferent if it's pro or con.
Best regards.