title: Beware of being captured by an analogy: dreams are like many things.
abstract: Classic traditions have linked dreams to memory (e.g., "dreaming is another kind of remembering" [Freud 1918/1955]) and modern notions like implicit memory subsume dreaming by definition. Llewellyn develops the more specific thesis that rapid eye movement (REM) dreams, because of their similarities to mnemonic techniques, have the function of elaboratively encoding episodic memories. This proposal is premature, requiring exigent testing. Other analogs of dreams, for example, jokes, do not invoke function but do contribute to dream science.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College, City University of New York (CUNY), Brooklyn, NY 11210-2889. erdelyi@brooklyn.cuny.edu.
authors.forename: Matthew Hugh
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Erdelyi
mesh_terms: D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004325:Dreams / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D012895:Sleep, REM / Q000502:physiology*