Ever heard of the old actor’s trick of reading your script before bedtime in order to get off book? Well, it may not be a theatrical urban legend after all. This week, NPR released a story about researchers who discovered that people may be capable of learning small lessons while asleep, in a similar capacity to Ivan Pavlov and his dog.
The researchers sprayed volunteers with both pleasant and not-so-pleasant smells while they were fast asleep. Much like a person who’s awake, the sleeping person took bigger breaths when the smell was pleasant, and smaller breaths when it wasn’t.
The researchers also paired each smell with a sound – remember the bell in Pavlov’s experiment? After repeated pairings of the pleasant smell with a particular sound (and vice versa), researchers found that the volunteers began to react as they did when actually sprayed with the smell. In other words, at least on some subconscious level, the volunteers were expecting each type of smell, depending on the sound – and their breathing changed accordingly.
Upon waking, researchers tried it again, with consistent results. The low-pitched tone associated with the bad odor caused volunteers to take smaller breaths, and the high-pitched tone associated with the pleasant small caused them to take bigger breaths.
Another interesting note: the volunteers had no recollection of having learned anything while sleeping.
To read the full article, click here.
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Petra Industries is the nation's leading wholesale distributor for consumer electronics, custom installation, mobile A/V, and appliance accessories.
The researchers sprayed volunteers with both pleasant and not-so-pleasant smells while they were fast asleep. Much like a person who’s awake, the sleeping person took bigger breaths when the smell was pleasant, and smaller breaths when it wasn’t.
The researchers also paired each smell with a sound – remember the bell in Pavlov’s experiment? After repeated pairings of the pleasant smell with a particular sound (and vice versa), researchers found that the volunteers began to react as they did when actually sprayed with the smell. In other words, at least on some subconscious level, the volunteers were expecting each type of smell, depending on the sound – and their breathing changed accordingly.
Upon waking, researchers tried it again, with consistent results. The low-pitched tone associated with the bad odor caused volunteers to take smaller breaths, and the high-pitched tone associated with the pleasant small caused them to take bigger breaths.
Another interesting note: the volunteers had no recollection of having learned anything while sleeping.
To read the full article, click here.
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Petra Industries is the nation's leading wholesale distributor for consumer electronics, custom installation, mobile A/V, and appliance accessories.
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