Kent Collins

146095
General Psychology Honors
PSY2012H, Section 0203
Dr. Corey Bohil
Montangero, J. (2012). Dream Thought Should Be Compared With Waking World Simulations:
A Comment on Hobson and Colleagues Paper on Dream Logic. Dreaming, 22, 70-73.
doi: 10.1037/s0026140

*** A brief note to the grader: There is opinion present in this paper due to the fact that the
source material has opinion within it. I am summarizing the opinion of the author, not
providing my own opinion***

Jacques Montangero of the University of Chicago presented a critique of the Hobson and
colleagues study on dream logic. He claims that their conclusion was too narrow-minded in the
realm of conscious thought, postulating that there are many different levels of rationality in
different types of conscious thought, and the findings of the study would have changed had these
other modes of cognition been considered.
Montangero views waking thought essentially as a spectrum of rationality and logic,
ranging from the most logical (such as when one tries to solve a problem) all the way to daydreaming or imagining the most fanciful notions. Essentially the modes of thought were
categorized by the links between their separate thoughts. The presence of rational links between
thoughts varies widely and the assumption that waking thought is exclusively logical and ordered
presents issues when studying parallels between dreams and conscious thought as it ignores the
types of conscious thought most similar to that of dreaming.
Dreaming does not have inherent logic. It is not a common task with certain steps, nor is
it scripted like a speech. It is essentially imagining, where thoughts freely bounce from one idea
to another. Therefore, one must compare the act of dreaming to instances in which thoughts
freely bounce or spontaneously form. Such instances include the spontaneous recall of memories
and anticipation of the future, as both of these can be involuntary and dont necessarily logically
follow the previous thought. When informally recalling memories, for instance, one remembers
concepts and strings several (often non-consecutive) moments together, often missing steps and
jumping around in the timeline of what really happened rather than all the details that would
have been captured on film. When dream reports were taken, the links between thoughts were
similarly constructed as when the same participants were asked to recount a recent event from

their life. This does not occur, however, when asked about a mundane or routine event from the
subjects life, such as their morning routine. The descriptions in this instance are more logical.
Most near to the act of dreaming is the act of daydreaming. During this, one can imagine
things as fanciful as being an opera singer or astronaut, or as mundane as trimming a tree. Both,
however, can have illogical or irrational elements to them. There are two characteristics of
dreams that are important to this idea: they are made up of concrete scenes and are fairly short.
These lend themselves to the prospect of dreaming through metaphors, as abstract or lengthy
concepts are often portrayed in dreams, though indirectly. In an example, Montangero postulates
that a scholars dream of pruning a tree could correlate to the scholars upcoming need to revise a
thesis. It would be unlikely that such a person would dream directly about editing his thesis, as
that would be a lengthy episode and entail abstract ideas, such as the notion of ideas themselves,
rather than more concrete notions.
It is clear that in order to effectively compare dream thought to waking thought, one must
consider the aspects of waking thought most similar to that of dreaming. The Hobson and
colleagues study did just the opposite, only considering the aspects of waking thought that differ
most greatly from the qualities of dream thought. The findings of the study identified causes for
the irrational thoughts of dreams, claiming that dreams are often simultaneously irrational and
organized. Montangero states that the causes for the irrational and rational aspects of dreaming
alike can be found in cognitive thought, if you observe the proper aspects of waking thought. The
study being assessed identified the sources of this irrationality by a deactivation of portion s of
the brain during sleep, such as the prefrontal cortex. While this would provide the same effect, it
does not explain irrational thought and lack of logic in waking thought.