A PSYCHOLINGUISTIC METHOD FOR ANALYZING 2 MODALITIES OF THOUGHT IN DREAM REPORTS

Following the general idea of a substantial bidimensionality of mind, a cognitive psycholinguistic model is proposed attempting to describe how two thinking modalities-named Y and X may contribute to the produc tion of a dream report Based on this model, two sets of syntactical-le xical categories were defined whose counts, divided for report length, should indicate the contribution of the two modalities to the verbal report of the dream. Preliminary results, based on the analysis of dre am reports contributed by 70 subjects, confirmed the factorial validit y of the Y and X measures. Comparisons of REM and sleep onset reports confirm that Y and X factorial indices are sensitive to discriminate s tate dependent characteristic of sleep mentation.