Phenomenological features of dreams: Results from dream log studies using the Subjective Experiences Rating Scale (SERS).

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.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Self-ratings of dream experiences were obtained from 144 college women for 788 dreams, using the Subjective Experiences Rating Scale (SERS). Consistent with past studies, dreams were characterized by a greater prevalence of vision, audition, and movement than smell, touch, or taste, by both positive and negative emotion, and by a range of cognitive processes. A Principal Components Analysis of SERS ratings revealed ten subscales: four sensory, three affective, one cognitive, and two structural (events/actions, locations). Correlations (Pearson r) among subscale means showed a stronger relationship among the process-oriented features (sensory, cognitive, affective) than between the process-oriented and content-centered (structural) features--a pattern predicted from past research (e.g., Bulkeley & Kahan, 2008). Notably, cognition and positive emotion were associated with a greater number of other phenomenal features than was negative emotion; these findings are consistent with studies of the qualitative features of waking autobiographical memory (e.g., Fredrickson, 2001).