Dreaming and consciousness

Abstract

Research in the second half of the twentieth century may finally have succeeded in constraining the boundaries of reasonable discussion about dreams and dreaming. Largely owing to physiological discoveries and psychophysiological methods for the representative sampling of human dreamlife, we now have a body of observations that delimits plausible explanations and theories.

For example, we now know that neither REM sleep nor its dreaming is a sporadic, fleeting response to intense psychic needs or peripheral organ states, but rather is an autonomous, cyclically recurring process which consumes relatively much of our sleep, indeed of our lives. We also know that the content of representatively sampled dreams of both adults (Snyder, 1970) and children (Foulkes, 1982) is generally realistic and mundane, rather than fantastic and bizarre. From this finding, and from direct com parisons of representatively sampled laboratory-collected dreams with spon taneously remembered home dreams (e.g. Foulkes. 1979). it has become apparent that the idea of dreaming as being full of strange and discontinuous imagery is a stereotype based on limited acquaintance with our own dreamlife. Specifically, our most ordinarily memorable dreams seem to be those relatively few that are particularly emotionally engaging, particularly unrealistic, or particularly odd in their imagery or thematic sequence. This leads us to underestimate the orderliness of a process that typically functions plausibly and coherently, in a similar if not identical manner to that which we believe (perhaps also stereotypically) characterises our non-dreaming experience.

Thus, studies of representatively sampled dreaming have shown that dream imagery itself typically is realistic or plausible (Dorus, Dorus, & Rechtschaffen, 1971). that dream speech typically is both grammatically correct and appropriate to the imagined situation in which it is embedded (Heynick, 1983). that the feelings accompanying dream imagery typically are appropriate to the imagined situations which they accompany (Foulkes, Sullivan, Kerr, & Brown, 1988), and that, overwhelmingly often, dreams progress over time in a continuous rather than a discontinuous way (Foulkes & Schmidt, 1983).

Such data indicate the need to radically revise or replace most older dream theories from the clinical tradition. Given the role that physiologists and physiological methods played in the development of these data, it was perhaps inevitable that dream theories would begin to be framed in reductionist terms. And, since the 19505, there have been many attempts to “explain” dream phenomena through their reduction to neurophysiological processes (e.g. Crick & Mitchison, 1983; Hobson & McCarley, 1977)     

The physical environment and child development: An international review

A growing body of research in the United States and Western Europe documents significant effects of the physical environment (toxins, pollutants, noise, crowding, chaos, and housing, school and neighborhood quality) on children and adolescents' cognitive and socioemotional development. Much less is known about these relations in other contexts, particularly the global South. We thus briefly review the evidence for relations between child development and the physical environment in Western contexts, and discuss some of the known mechanisms behind these relations. We then provide a more extensive review of the research to date outside of Western contexts, with a specific emphasis on research in the global South. Where the research is limited, we highlight relevant data documenting the physical environment conditions experienced by children, and make recommendations for future work. In these recommendations, we highlight the limitations of employing research methodologies developed in Western contexts (Ferguson & Lee, 2013). Finally, we propose a holistic, multidisciplinary, and multilevel approach based on Bronfenbrenner's (1979) bioecological model to better understand and reduce the aversive effects of multiple environmental risk factors on the cognitive and socioemotional development of children across the globe.     

Validation française du questionnaire d’évaluation de l’environnement invalidant durant l’enfance : the Invalidating Childhood Environments Scale (ICES)

IntroductionThe Invalidating Childhood Environments Scale (ICES) was developed by Mountford et al. (2007) in order to measure the parental invalidation of the child's emotional needs from the adolescent or young adult perception.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is the validation in French of the ICES based on its factorial structure and psychometric property.MethodParticipants included 585 freshmen university students (186 males, 399 females), aged 18–22.ResultsResults show that the French version had good psychometric validity. Factorial analyses indicate a two dimensions construct structure identical for each parent. These dimensions were labeled “personal distress” and “inability of empathy” in reference of Batson's studies on altruism (Batson, 1991). The convergent validity of the ICES is supported by the relationship between the scores on the different dimensions and the depression symptomatology.ConclusionImplications of the perception of these two dimensions of empathy and the family environment in the psychological health are addressed.     

The role of prediction in mental processing: A process approach

Although prediction plays a prominent role in mental processing, we have only limited understanding of how the brain generates and employs predictions. This paper develops a theoretical framework in three steps. First I propose a process model that describes how predictions are produced and are linked to behavior. Subsequently I describe a generative mechanism, consisting of the selective amplification of neural dynamics in the context of boundary conditions. I hypothesize that this mechanism is active as a process engine in every mental process, and that therefore each mental process proceeds in two stages: (i) the formation of process boundary conditions; (ii) the bringing about of the process function by the operation – within the boundary conditions – of a relatively ‘blind’ generative process. Thirdly, from this hypothesis I derive a strategy for describing processes formally. The result is a multilevel framework that may also be useful for studying mental processes in general.     

Affective priming of perceived environmental restorativeness

Research into the perceived restorativeness of environments tends to focus on the Kaplans' Attention Restoration Theory at the expense of the affective considerations of Ulrich's psychoevolutionary model. To better understand the role of emotion, this study used contextual text‐based primers (newspaper articles) to manipulate participants' affective state (positive or negative) prior to them rating different environments using the Restorative Components Scale. Sixty‐nine participants completed the web‐based study, being pseudo‐randomly allocated to the positive‐ or negative‐prime condition before rating three natural and three urban environments. Natural environments were rated as more restorative than urban, with negative‐priming giving higher mean ratings for all environments. This effect was overall statistically significant for two components (Being Away and Fascination), but only Fascination showed a significant interaction of affective‐prime and environment, a larger effect being seen for natural environments. Results are discussed in terms of current understanding of the interrelationship between attentional and affective processes.     

GLOBAL VISIONS AND COMMON GROUND: BIODEMOCRACY,POSTMODERN PRESSURES,AND THE EARTH CHARTER

The theme of this article is a rise in notions of a planetary community, and the tensions this evokes in global‐local and universal‐contextual debates. The primary focus is the realization that new visions are needed to respond to ecological dilemmas in a culturally diverse yet global world and interconnected Earth. Of the many ways to discuss this, I first consider the growing interest in and expansion of biodemocracy as a way to combine these dimensions. Insights and issues from postmodern perspectives follow this, surveying the suspicion of what lurks behind “global.” The next segment turns to ecological postmodernists who realize that a unifying path must be found for a viable planetary future. A brief and final section considers the Earth Charter to be an initiative responsive to postmodern pressures, and yet seeking a global vision and common ground for an emerging world community.     

THE EARTH CHARTER AND BIODEMOCRACY IN THE TWENTY‐FIRST CENTURY

This essay introduces the themes that motivate the three articles that follow. Their common aim is to explore the connections between the Earth Charter and the concept of biodemocracy with the intention of highlighting ways of thinking about the relationship between science, religion, and the environment in the twenty‐first century. Informed by the science of ecology and written by scholars of religion, the articles included here seek to integrate movements and ideas as diverse as postmodern thought, the much‐debated thought of Lynn White, jr. (his preferred spelling), and the synergy emerging between the Earth Charter and Journey of the Universe.