IDENTIFYING FACTORS INFLUENCING

DREAM RECALL

A DIAGNOSTIC INVENTORY

This research tool is presented to stimulate your powers of observation and to help you develop awareness of what is influencing your recall of dreams. We suggest you rate these factors now, on the basis of your current impressions. Afterwards, observe your dream recall over a period of time to see what factors you find actually do affect your memory for dreams. Rating the factors again, after such a period of careful observation, and comparing your second set of ratings with your initial ratings, you may make some interesting discoveries.

Those of you who have difficulty remembering your dreams may be helped by the diagnostic analysis presented at the conclusion of the rating inventory. To function as a diagnostic aid, however, the factors must be rated before you read the analysis.

Instructions: Given are 26 factors known to affect dream recall. Not everyone's dream recall is affected by the same factors. You are asked to rate each factor for the degree of influence it has on your dream recall. Some factors tend to be positive influences and others tend to be detrimental to dream recall. But you are asked to judge simply the degree of influence, regardless of whether the influence is positive or negative. The rating scheme is a 5-point scale, beginning with 0—no influence whatsoever; 1—minor influence of little practical significance; 2—moderate influence; 3—important influence of definite effect; and 4—vital influence which by itself can make or break dream recall.

If used diagnostically, the inventory will be most accurate if you take care to assign the extreme ratings ("0" and "4") to only 2 factors each, the next extreme ratings ("1" and "3") to exactly 6 factors each, and assign the rating, "2," to the remaining 10 factors.