Unraveling reported dreams with text analytics

TY - JOUR

T1 - Unraveling reported dreams with text analytics

AU - Hendrickx, Iris

AU - Onrust, Louis

AU - Kunneman, Florian

AU - Hürriyetoglu, Ali

AU - Stoop, Wessel

AU - van den Bosch, A.

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - We investigate what distinguishes reported dreams from other personal narratives. The continuity hypothesis, stemming from psychological dream analysis work, states that most dreams refer to a person’s daily life and personal concerns, similar to other personal narratives such as diary entries. Differences between the two texts may reveal the linguistic markers of dream text, which could be the basis for new dream analysis work and for the automatic detection of dream descriptions. We used three text analytics methods: text classification, topic modeling, and text coherence analysis, and applied these methods to a balanced set of texts representing dreams, diary entries, and other personal stories. We observed that dream texts could be distinguished from other personal narratives nearly perfectly, mostly based on the presence of uncertainty markers and descriptions of scenes. Important markers for non-dream narratives are specific time expressions. Dream texts also exhibit a lower discourse coherence than other personal narratives.

AB - We investigate what distinguishes reported dreams from other personal narratives. The continuity hypothesis, stemming from psychological dream analysis work, states that most dreams refer to a person’s daily life and personal concerns, similar to other personal narratives such as diary entries. Differences between the two texts may reveal the linguistic markers of dream text, which could be the basis for new dream analysis work and for the automatic detection of dream descriptions. We used three text analytics methods: text classification, topic modeling, and text coherence analysis, and applied these methods to a balanced set of texts representing dreams, diary entries, and other personal stories. We observed that dream texts could be distinguished from other personal narratives nearly perfectly, mostly based on the presence of uncertainty markers and descriptions of scenes. Important markers for non-dream narratives are specific time expressions. Dream texts also exhibit a lower discourse coherence than other personal narratives.

KW - dream

KW - personal narrative

KW - dream psychology

KW - text analytics

KW - topic modeling

M3 - Article

SN - 1938-4122

VL - 11

JO - Digital Humanities Quarterly

JF - Digital Humanities Quarterly

IS - 4

ER -