Are dreams social simulations? Or are they enactments of conceptions and personal concerns? An empirical and theoretical comparison of two dream theories.

This article compares social simulation theory, which claims that dreaming is a rehearsal for waking social perceptions and interactions, and therefore has adaptive value (Revonsuo, Tuominen, & Valli, 2015), with a neurocognitive theory of dreaming, which claims dreaming is an intensified form of mind-wandering that makes use of embodied simulation, primarily to enact the dreamer’s major conceptions and personal concerns, but has no adaptive value (Domhoff, 2011). The article presents new findings on types of embodied simulations in dream reports, 6.5% of which are not social simulations according to social simulation theorists. The article concludes with a critique of social simulation theory and 3 other social rehearsal theories based on (a) new results presented in this article, including findings on dreams with no characters other than the dreamer; (b) the replicated finding that social interactions with deceased loved ones are repeated consistently in dream series kept for years and decades, which does not fit with the idea of rehearsal for the future; (c) the cognitive–developmental evidence that dreaming does not reach the frequency of adult dreaming until ages 9–11, and is not fully like that of adults until early adolescence, which does not fit with the claim that dreaming has adaptive value for young children as a rehearsal of perceptual and interaction skills; (d) the theory’s questionable underlying assumptions concerning “implicit learning” during dre...
Source: Dreaming - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research