SLEEPING AND WAKING THOUGHT: THE EFFECTS OF CORTICAL AROUSAL AND EXTERNAL STIMULATION.
Item
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Title
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SLEEPING AND WAKING THOUGHT: THE EFFECTS OF CORTICAL AROUSAL AND EXTERNAL STIMULATION.
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Identifier
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AAI8501185
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identifier
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8501185
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Creator
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WOLLMAN, MIRIAM C.
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Contributor
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John S. Antrobus
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Date
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1984
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Experimental
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Abstract
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The current research attempted to describe waking thought and REM imagery as quantitative differences in a single set of variables. It was hypothesized that cortical activation and heightened sensory thresholds are sufficient to account for the particular characteristics of the REM mentation report.;Thirty subjects participated in individual sessions where they lay in a sound attenuated, lightproof room with eyes closed.;They are asked for mentation reports: (1) after lying awake with external stimulation (W). (2) after lying awake without external stimulation (WO). (3) after being awakened from REM sleep.;The EEG activity, obtained from left and right mid temporal-parietal and central sites, was recorded for five minute periods before obtaining mentation reports. The absolute power of the EEG activity was calculated for each of six bandwidths.;All transcribed mentation reports were independently scored by two judges, blind to the conditions, on seven content rating scales. These scales include the Total Recall Count (TRC) measure, a count of all words in which the subject was describing his/her experience during the previous interval. The reports were also scored on a Thought Unit (TU) scale. This is a count of the distinct, thematically homogeneous thought sequences.;It was hypothesized that external stimulation would generate intrusions in the subjects thought processes, leading to shorter but more numerous units of thought. It was also hypothesized that within both waking and REM conditions general cortical arousal, measured as greater beta power and lower delta power would relate to amount of recalled content.;Hotelling T squared tests were performed with the different states as the independent variables and the scores on the cognitive scales as the dependent variables. In a comparison of mentation reports of Waking subjects with those subjects awakened from REM, the major distinction was that the Waking subject changes topics more frequently.;EEG power data from both Waking and REM were entered into multiple linear regression equations to predict TRC. No relationships were found between TRC and general cortical activation. Other statistical analyses, including relationships between TRC and scales of visual imagery, are discussed.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Psychology
