On two different nights, Nia dreams during REM sleep about a familiar swimming pool. In Dream A, she is frightened as the pool fills with dark water. In Dream B, the same pool appears, but she feels no emotion at all.
Using Activation Synthesis Theory, explain how Dream A could contain both fear and the storyline about the pool. A psychologist suggests that Dream B differed because random activation did not reach one brain structure. Suggest which structure this was and explain your answer.
81 exam-style questions on OCR GCSE Psychology 6.2 Theories/Explanations: The Nature of Dreaming, covering 6.2.1 Freudian dreaming: unconscious and repression, 6.2.2 Freudian dreaming: wish fulfilment and dream content; criticisms, 6.2.3 Freudian Theory research study: Freud (1918), 6.2.4 Activation Synthesis: REM sleep and the brain, 6.2.5 Activation Synthesis: pons, cortex and synthesis; criticisms, and 6.2.6 Activation Synthesis research study: Williams et al. (1992). Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.