Yennhi Le | Lehman College of CUNY (original) (raw)

Papers by Yennhi Le

Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Jan 1, 1911

Consciousness and Cognition, Jan 1, 2011

Dreaming is often characterized as lacking high-order cognitive (HOC) skills. In two studies, we ... more Dreaming is often characterized as lacking high-order cognitive (HOC) skills. In two studies, we test the alternative hypothesis that the dreaming mind is highly similar to the waking mind. Multiple experience samples were obtained from late-night REM sleep and waking, following a systematic protocol described in Kahan (2001). Results indicated that reported dreaming and waking experiences are surprisingly similar in their cognitive and sensory qualities. Concurrently, ratings of dreaming and waking experiences were markedly different on questions of general reality orientation and logical organization (e.g., the bizarreness or typicality of the events, actions, and locations). Consistent with other recent studies (e.g., and ), experiences sampled from dreaming and waking were more similar with respect to their process features than with respect to their structural features.

The authors studied the self-rated effect of dreams on creativity in participants who were not se... more The authors studied the self-rated effect of dreams on creativity in participants who were not selected for creative abilities. Students {N = 444) and online respondents (A' = 636) answered a questionnaire about dreams and creative dreams. In addition, the students completed several personality measures and creativity scales. Results indicated that dreams that stimulated waking-life creativity played a considerable role in the lives of ordinary people (about 8% of all dreams). Examples reported by the online participants fell into 4 categories: (a) dream images used for art, work, or similar areas; (b) dreams that solved a problem; (c) dreams that provided the impetus to do something that the dreamer otherwise had difficulty doing; and (d) dreams containing emotional insights. The main factors influencing frequency of creative dreams were dream recall frequency and the thin boundaries personality dimension. Future researchers should use diary techniques to study the effects of dreams on waking life and should develop techniques to increase the frequency of creative dreams that might be valuable as aids for people in creative jobs.

Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Jan 1, 1979

The literature in the area of hypnotic dreams is reviewed. Physiological correlates of hypnotic d... more The literature in the area of hypnotic dreams is reviewed. Physiological correlates of hypnotic dreams were found to be better established than content characteristics. This study examined the content of hypnotic dreams in relation to that of nocturnal and daydreams from the same subjects. Deep trance subjects' hypnotic dreams were found to be similar to their nocturnal dreams and different from daydreams on a wide variety of characteristics including length, emotional themes, characters, setting, and amount of distortion. Medium trance subjects' hypnotic dreams were found to fall between their nocturnal dreams and daydreams on most of these measures.

Journal of Sleep Research, Jan 1, 2000

The formal features of dream characters were studied in a sample of 320 dream reports submitted b... more The formal features of dream characters were studied in a sample of 320 dream reports submitted by 33 adult subjects (13 male, 20 female) of varying ages in a university extension course. Subjects were queried by questionnaire about dream characters immediately after recording their dreams upon awakening in their normal home setting. It was found that 48% of characters represented a named personage known to the dreamer, 35% were generically identified by their social role (e.g., policeman) or abstract relation to the dreamer (e.g., a friend) while only 16% were wholly novel. Seventy-seven percent of characters were pseudosensorily present in the dream whereas 23% were present only by mention or thought. Subjects were allowed to endorse one or more of four bases of recognition and, among named characters, 32% were identified by ‘appearance’, 21% by ‘behavior’, 45% by ‘face’, and 44% by ‘just knowing’ (with the respective percentages for generic characters being 39%, 38%, 9% and 40%). Fourteen percent of named and generic characters had associated some element of bizarreness most frequently consisting of an incongruous feature. Comparing the 25 longest and 25 shortest reports, named subjects were significantly more common in the shortest reports whereas generic and unknown characters were more common in the longest reports. Results are interpreted in neurocognitive terms as possibly reflecting a decrease during dreaming relative to waking in the exchange of information between inferotemporal face identification areas and prefrontal areas subserving logic and working memory.

Psychiatry Research, Jan 1, 2006

To test that dreams are influenced by the pre-sleep waking emotional concerns of the sleeper and ... more To test that dreams are influenced by the pre-sleep waking emotional concerns of the sleeper and have an effect on waking adaptation, 20 depressed and 10 control subjects, who were all going through a divorce, were enrolled in a repeated measures study lasting 5 months. A Current Concerns test was administered on three occasions before nights when every REM period was interrupted to record recalled mental content. The degree of waking concern about the ex-spouse correlated significantly with the number of dreams in which the former partner appeared as a dream character. Those who were in remission at the follow-up evaluation had a higher percentage of well-developed dreams than those who remained depressed. Dreams of the former spouse reported by those in remission differed from those who remained depressed in the expression of dream affect and in the within-dream linkage among units of associated memory material. Dreams of the former spouse that are reported by those who are not in remission lack affect and connection to other memories.

Consciousness and Cognition, Jan 1, 1997

Thirty-eight “practiced” dreamers (Study 1) and 50 “novice” dreamers (Study 2) completed question... more Thirty-eight “practiced” dreamers (Study 1) and 50 “novice” dreamers (Study 2) completed questionnaires assessing the cognitive, metacognitive, and emotional qualities of recent waking and dreaming experiences. The present findings suggest that dreaming cognition is more similar to waking cognition than previously assumed and that the differences between dreaming and waking cognition are more quantitative than qualitative. Results from the two studies were generally consistent, indicating that high-order cognition during dreaming is not restricted to individuals practiced in dream recall or self-observation. None of the measured features was absent or infrequent in reports of either dreaming or waking experiences. Recollections of dreaming and waking experiences were similar for some cognitive features (e.g., attentional processes, internal commentary, and public self-consciousness) and different for other features (e.g., choice, event-related self-reflection, and affect).

Perceptual and Motor Skills, Jan 1, 2000

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