Daily events and dream content: Unsuccessful matching attempts.

Abstract

Event descriptions (ED) from 6 different days and 6 corresponding morning dream reports (DR) were obtained from 13 participants. In a within-participant matching task, 14 untrained undergraduate student judges attempted to pair 6 EDs to 6 corresponding DRs for each of 6 participants. In a between-participant matching task, the same judges attempted to match 6 EDs from different participants to their respective DRs. For the within-participant task, a significance test for a single mean indicated that judges were unable to match dreams to their corresponding daily events at better than chance levels. For the between-participant matching task, however, it appears that judges were able to make pairs at significant levels but were still making on average less than 2 out of the possible 6 pairs per item. In a ranking task, two different judges read 1 ED and 6 DRs and then ranked the dreams from 1 to 6, 1 being most likely to be related to the ED and 6 being the least likely. Statistical tests revealed that dreams did not obtain better ranks (closer to 1) when they were the correct match than when they were not. These data appear to demonstrate that independent observers are unable to detect a clear resemblance between participants' daily events and manifest dream content.