Information Processing Theory of Dreams - Essay Example

Two persons who have undergone the same experience during the daytime need not see the same dream during the night. So we cannot conclude anything about the input information processing and its outputs.    

Sigmund Freud has argued that day's residues are memory traces left by the events and psychic processes of the waking state; they are used as raw material by the dream-work that serves the wishes of the dreamer. According to Freud, the day's residues, in combination with sensory impressions occurring during sleep, constitute the "raw material" for dreams (Day's Residues)

Example of "Residue of the Day/Information processing"
Consider a criminal has approached us with a machine gun and tried to kill us and we escaped even though many people were killed. Such a frightening experience would definitely create frightening dreams during nighttime in different ways. On the other hand, consider we have attended a happy ceremony like wedding or birthday party. The pleasant day experiences may develop pleasant dreams during nighttime. The nature and characteristics of these dreams would be different for different people even though all of them undergo the same experience during the daytime.

Response to classmates
Oldham’s interpretation of dreams is only partly right. He is saying that re-examination of daily events is the most common type of dream. In fact, we are not deliberately doing anything to re-examine the daily events. It happens automatically. Moreover, this re-examination of day events may not happen always or may not convert into dreams always. Instead of giving a proper example for day residue dreams, Oldham casually explains what to or how to dream.

Autumn Gregory’s explanation of dreams is more realistic compared to Oldham’s explanation. Gregory’s argument about the processing of day information by the brain as the root cause of dreams seems to be more logical. Moreover, the example provided by Gregory was also good more appropriate to the topic.