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Dream Recall: State or Trait Variable? Part II: State Factors, Investigations and Final Conclusions

Michael Schredl, Alyaa Montasser

Imagination Cognition and Personality March 1, 1997 DOI: 10.2190/9vuv-wmp7-nkbl-62da (opens in new tab)

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Review Peer reviewed
Topics Dreaming
Keywords Dream Trait Recall Creativity State computer science Cognitive psychology Psychotherapist
Citations 33
Key findings Argues that state factors (nocturnal awakenings, focusing on dreams in the morning) and trait factors (fantasy life, creativity, visual memory) together explain variability in dream recall, and proposes future research directions.

Abstract

The first part of a two article series presented the hypotheses explaining the variation in dream recall, a model of the dream recall process and the empirical data concerning trait factors. The present article includes earlier data concerning state factors, new empirical data on how these influence dream recall, and some final conclusions. State factors such as nocturnal awakenings and focusing on dreams in the morning along with trait factors of fantasy life, creativity and visual memory all play an important part in explaining the variability in dream recall. Additionally, some suggestions for future research in explaining why there is such variability in our ability to recollect what we dreamt in a given night are presented.