IELTS Research Reports

An empirical investigation of the process of writing Academic Readingtest items for the International English Language Testing SystemAnother type of implicit memory uses semantic knowledge, and resides in a region of the brain calledthe neocortex. One aspect of semantic knowledge involves general, abstract concepts. Both groups ofTetris players, for example, only described seeing blocks, falling and rotating, and evidently did notsee a desk, room, or computer screen, or feel their fingers on the keyboard.Without help from the hippocampus, new semantic memories are too weak to be intentionally recalled.But they still have the potential to affect behaviour. In contrast, the information in episodic memoriesis associated with specific times, places or events thus providing “anchors” to reality. In contrast,implicit memories based on semantic knowledge do not possess such grounding and it is for thisreason the study’s authors say that dreams are so illogical and full of discontinuity.We have to enquire as to the benefit to the individual of being able to dream. Stickgold upholds thatdreams serve a purpose for the brain, allowing it to make necessary emotional connections among newpieces of information.Dreams let us consolidate and integrate … experiences, without conflict with other inputfrom real life. Dreaming is like saying, ‘I’m going home, disconnecting the phone, andnobody talk to me. I have to do work Stickgold.Because the hippocampus seems to be inaccessible for this “off-line” memory processing, the brainmay use the abstract information in the neocortex instead.According to Stickgold’s theory, dreaming is like choosing an outfit by reaching into bins labelled‘shirts, trousers’ and so on. You’ll happen upon something to wear, but it won’t be a perfectlymatching ensemble.The period of sleep that Stickgold’s team studied is called hypnagogia: an in-between state betweenbeing fully awake and fully asleep. Many people who have just had an intense new experience of somekind, either mental or physical, often report replays of that experience during this stage.In his poem, ‘After Apple Picking’, for example, Robert Frost describes seeing the apples and appleblossoms, and feeling the ladder sway as he nods off to sleep. Stickgold’s first encounter with thisphenomenon occurred after a day of mountain climbing, when he felt the sensation of rocks under hisfingertips as he fell asleep.Hypnagogic sleep is different from REM sleep, the period marked by rapid eye movement, whenstandard dreams most often occur. According to Stickgold, other studies suggest that the hippocampusis not active during REM sleep either. Therefore, he proposes, the brain activity responsible for theTetris images is probably similar to the dreaming that occurs in REM sleep.Interpreting REM sleep dreams, however, is a highly subjective process. Stickgold states, ‘whatis so nice about the images in our experiments is that they are so accurately re-creating the Tetrisexperience- no interpretation is necessary.’IELTS Research Reports Volume 11343