Phenomenological features of dreams: Results from dream log studies using the Subjective Experiences Rating Scale (SERS).
Consciousness and Cognition April 1, 2016 Tracey L. Kahan, Stephanie Claudatos
Dreams are dominated by vision, audition, and movement rather than smell, touch, or taste, and include both positive and negative emotions along with various cognitive processes. Ratings of 788 dreams from 144 college women using the Subjective Experiences Rating Scale identified ten subscales: four sensory, three affective, one cognitive, and two structural (events/actions, locations). Process-oriented features (sensory, cognitive, affective) were more strongly correlated with each other than with content-centered structural features. Cognition and positive emotion were linked to more phenomenal features than negative emotion, a pattern also seen in waking autobiographical memory.