LearW-ng@' A Su=exy Raviev Of the With SpeciAl Reference to Acquisition of Foreign Language Ski-US 1965 Problem Tc appraise "sleep leai-n-ing" as a tc-chniqu3 for acquiring verball skills wi.th special refirence t(% foreign lancuat-,e learning, Procedure A survey was made of a variety of sources dealing with learning .dur-ing sleep. 2 The rev-iew included the technica@- literature, popular books, co=er(,ial pamphlets, 'Lastern i-;,uropean materials, and COMnA=iCatiOnS frOM scientists familiar with the prcole=. The material was analyzed in terms of the evidence pres"ted for o2r agaitst sleep 1:3arni-ng as a practical training -.echnia-u3. Conclusion@@. 1. qii-,gardless of present day acccunt3 of spectacular foreign language capabilities ac@rlired during sleepl-/, no acceptable evi-dence 2 that sleep learning is an effective tachniclue i-i foreign lange@age +.raini-ng has been uncovered in our survey. Verbal learning, as comnor-ly und@rstood, does not occur during ac@@UaLl sleep. Althougb some verbal learning can occur during lov levels of irakafulness, 7 such as drowsin2ss or reverie, there is no acqu--sition of sueb knowl4@:dge during real sleep. Appendix I gives a sample of "oh accounts. The items men'@ioned in this sample were the impetus for this paper and rsceived special attention in our revie-,i. 2 2. The possibi34ty of any practical results of furtbar researcb in the area of verbal learning during sleep ancl especially foreign lang=ge learning would seem to be rather unlikely.- Unless some new cuid promising 2materials or procedures in this area are evolved,'we woum suggest that further research, if any ir, contemplated, be directed toward other,' less &-amtic, 'out mora feasible objectives. "The procedure of listening to and I)racticing with fore,,,Q,,m language material dtl-ing pari2ods of 1-,isur--, relay@ation, or simple physical routine = result in inr@,ased knmiledge an& skill. The possible increase in foreign language competecce expectad from such.' practices abould, of course, be assessed in tei-ms of the psychological and physiological costs. A Sum-ary Fzview of "Sleep L@zLrning" ifith Special Reference to the Acquisition of Foreign LanGuaga Skil.Is Problem The claim that knowledge can be acquirad iiitbout effort is the pr=ise -of sleep lea2rn'Alng. The purpose of the prc-sent paper is to assess this claim vith particular reference to the lcarning of foreign languagas. I)efiniti,on of "Sleep L,-tarnin.%" The term "Sleep Lep-rning," as used in the present paper, refers to the leaming, or supposed learning, of so2me verbal subject matter or skill during a state of natxu-al sleep. That this is the co- a meaning of the term is apparent from a revieu of populalr @nd commereigll sources, as well as from the sciantiric llteraturz, both of which are listed in the tablt of references on page 11. 2 The references mentioned ind.,Lcate a geners-I and co=on meaning to the term "Sleep Learning." Other similar terms are "sleep education" and "sleep teacbing." The sleep learning idea is sometimes associated with h@,pnotism, as in "hypnor)edia." So=eti=es sleab learning is assoc2iatad with therapy, as in ':sleep therapy." Ilhese meanings and usages apparently occur on a w4-da basis, being found in both Zuropean and Western literatures. The fact of widaspread agreeirent as to the meaning o@@ the term, however, is no necessary reason for believing that sleep learning actually occurs. In order to te6st whetber sleep isarning does take place, some objectiv@ft criterion of decidiri3 wbetber a person Is or is not asleep, as well as wbetber th- person baz or has not learned anything ubile in the sl.%3ping state must be utilized. Although there are technical reasons for regarding both sleep 2 and learuing as continuoiis pben=ena sucb that one speak of levels in the sleep-wakafuuess continuum or of in the simple-to- complex learning continuum, it is also true that reliable judgments can be made as to whether a -person is or is not asleep and, Independently, as to v@et2her a person has or has not learn%d iomething. Criterion oL§Iee2 Zlectroencephalograpbic (EZG) or brain 't-rava mcnitoring ')f a person, in a sl@aping condi-tion, to ag@j4 as to wbetber be is or is not asleep at any one moment,: the absence 2 of alpha wave is co=oaly taken to indicate loss of consciousness or onset of act-tia-1 sleep; presence of delta ,mvs indicates deep sleep. Though other indicators of sleep are also used, the alpha and delta wave riteria are in good standing. (16, 19, 20) Criterion of Learnin!i 2 Learning, or the acq@-visition of knoiledge, is commonly demnstrated by a variety oC questioning or testing procedures. If a person did not kncn the ansaier to a question yesterday and k--,ms it today, -this is ganerauy taken as indicating be learned the answer in the meantime. Learning is genera3lly inferred on the basis o,@ an increase in knowledge or an improvement in performance attributad to experience, instruction, study, or practice. qp Purpose of Paper This paper is concerned with the practical proble-m of assessing the cont:-Ibution of sleep learning to the languag-- teaching process. The major contribution to this assessment problem comes from a series of studie2s @y Cbarles W. Simon and tlil]4am E. C:=ns. These author$ systematically rev-ieved the sliep learning literature for the RA.ND Corporation some years ago. Their laboratory controlled, yet 'nighly, practical, experiments on sleep learning &re i;idely accepted as the most autho2ritative &nd definitive work that has been done on the proble.m of verbal or "comple.-." learning during sleep. The major failina of studies whieb purport to de=nstrat.- "s.leep learning" is the use of an inadecluate or casual method of detarmifting when the learner was asleep. 2 In view of this c=on fault, the technically sophisticated work of Simon and Zm=ns warrants the folloi;ing detai..led exp-Ucation. The Simon and lmmns i.,,Deriments In order to datermina, whether knowledge could be acquired during sleep, Simon and Zm2=ns (18) played ganeral informp-tion question-and- answar items one by one at five-minute intervals thraughout the nigbt to 21 people. There ware 96 questions in all, and eaeb question was played to each person in the exp3rimental group one time. By also Lzeasaring the deptb of 112e3p of eaeb subject con@@inuously during the night by means ofthe 7@EG, it was possible to determine whether a pers3n had learned the answer to a particular item-wbile be was qo Emig 6 asleep or while he was awake-. A baseline a(;ainst ithich to_compare the arount learned by the experimental "sleep -earning" group was prov-ided by a matched control group of 64 paop'-* wbo received no intervening training on the items. It vias fo2und that the greatest learning occurred when the subject was wide awakaj that less and less material was learned as the people became drewsier and drowsier, and that when the people became really asleep, a@U learning stopped, th-- level ot knowledge then being no higher than the knowledge bazeline of the control paople.who had received no training. As obown in the graph on Page T, the clisar,-,earanca of all 12ar@3ing -with the onset of actual sleep is c@.ear-cat. The aixtbors concluied that "the results support, tLe that learning2 C i -.ng s2,eap is unlikely." in the study just d,@scribed, each p@trson i-q the sleep-trained grou? was exposed to each question-and-answer combination once and only once. A second experiment (6) was pert'or:ned to determine - whe2t.aer sleep 1earning would occur if the people bad co=non one- syllable words played to them over and over again many times during actual sleep. By giving the people many axposl:,res to the items, a greater opportunity was provided for sleep leaxni-ng to man-' 4"--st- itself. The number of times the items were pr@-sent!d during actual sleep varied from 16 times for somz people to as many as 82 ti--es for others, the averaga for the group bzing 46 pres,-ntations. Aga-in, no learning occurrad during periods when the '7,ZG indicated that the -people worm '%,ruly asl2ep. Adak RP 7 9( onswcta recorni'ted on mult;plc-cbolce xet 2 100 90 00 ObtGriiid 70 50 2 Awake Asleep 40 20 ected p 2 No. of subilcts 19 21 29 21 21 ZL 19 12 14g. or items t5g 156 210 257 400 333 .117 56 Steep levilt yride ...... Rtycril ...... Onset ............ Ver2w deep owahe of sleep $;Jcep ortemi wcte pr"cntcd at varying lcvcls aiong the tontinuum bctwma a wlkir@ r4- 2 dcrp giccp state. The expected value was that obtained from an untrained cdnuol of comparable ability inswct'mg the same iacml (S;mon and Emrnons. 1956. p. 94' 8 as quoted by, Berelson, Bi-, and Steiner, G.A. Funan Behavior; An Invento--y of Scientific Findings, New Yofk, Harcourt, Brace World, 1964, p. 179. probably no study of a complicated probleta can arrive at- cotelusive proofs. In this vein, Simon and Bmwis (18) state, "Perhaps the future development of neir gmd unknown tecbniciuas vill permit someone to learn complex material wh-i-la b2-a sleeps, but for the 'present, sleep-learning is not the simple matter that some experimenters and co=2rcia-I firms, vbich sell equipment for this p,ar-mose, would lead us to eve. Is Or,ber Considerations There is evidence that simple conditione2d reflexes can be insti-.uted during sleep in animals and, presumably, in man. (I, 9) Thus, sleep learning can legitijmtely be'defend2d in a technical or laboratory sense) though not in a practical or reELI-3-ife sense. It would be misleading to interpret r:uch data cfut -of con2tot@ct in an attemp t to provide scientific status to the pop-i-lar 'sleep learning movenent. if learning during real sleep is impossible, a-nd if one's entire wide-awake schedule is filled vtth active work or stlidy, what about the periods in bet,4ee2n? Could the reverie or drcwsy states be used to acquire additional knowledge? Learning during the clrm;sy state is certai--ily possible. Simon end 7-@mmons point out that "approximtely 3CKp; of the --- materia3. presented in the period just prior to sleep ua-s rece-Ued4." (18) T'as X"cv S"Qtc Ulawcr6"Y It %%'as Ac-.tdcniy of Science.,;, says ft foard tli;kt licr k-no%%-Icdge - :s possil)lo to niemorile up to ivos c q u i v a., a n t to tilat 40D %vord.S and plirises in a 2 ackleved in the normal first- nighl v"r course at Jie university. I)r. Abrain Svyadoscl@ch,. T@.is is repo.-.ed in ',kn art!- wlio began experiine2nt3 in cAe by a Russ' 'an journalis@ the 930s. says Uiit!slecp- ViBen Lustil)c.-@ which ap- learning tires tite brtin less pc=s in ilio 4@'arch issue o( Oan tiorrnal2 It-irnlng. t@'.0 riagailne Nciv Educa- Althougli the brain func-, t!o,.L lions as a unit; not all its' DISTOTtTL-1) areas tire in Uie some state 2 t-'rort-. ut any givon menient. 11,51.Aletion L ii i t I b 4 r g sayi: "Tric lnczts in gt.GL e.o .1-:1.2v ILi,,I2lic!r A@-orui cerebral coriev re- neoti;il S,@hooL Af',t;r the Y%t ioni@ics a, niosale with In. 11 teichaiiging points of excita- pils 2 .,a- zslce?- words azd phrases are re2@. t* tbqm in tion and lnhjbition: tllat Is, It a vol.-a which Is d,i;lo,-.od to is Vaose cb. partlTl,-.@let-a'2 vigilan! and relaxinc." SLEEP In ilie sarne way. 9ELn, lsicei ilia copatity for work 2 ;o[@Wany cells of the cerebral cortt)t remains. The recep- tive faculty of the mind can still function through these 2 ceII3. althcuih '(hi system conLroUing the c 0 n 3 c i a ,@l it miod Is Inhibited and at rtst.1 In e&rly exporiernents, D.1 Svyrdothch successfully SCLECT-D RZFER--?.'C2S 1. Bch, H.C. "Discrimination and Conditioning During Sleep as ladicated 'by the Clectroencephalogram,' @cienc2,, Vol. 147i 19 March 1965, 1470-14721. 2. Brozek, Josef. "Recant Dev2lopments in Soviet Psychology," Annual Reviev of P sy@ihol@ , Vol. 15, 1964, 493-594 3. Consumer Bulletin. "Ectucation I;hile You SI-eel@l" - October 1960. 4. Curtis, Dav-id. Learn 14hil22 You SleeD. N--v York: Libra, 1960. 5. Ciu-tis, David. Sleep and Learn.' New York: Robert, LenJ. Corp., 1963. 6. E- nS, V.H. & SiMon, Le.11. "Tfe Non-Recall of Yaterial Presented DurirLg Sleep," The American :ournal of PsycbLiogy, Vol. 69, 2 (1), 1-956, 76-81. T. Granda, A.M. "Operant Behavior DLL-ing Sle-ap," Science Vol- 133, 12 May Igo'l, 1485-1486. 8. :ournal of the American 14ed-ical As'sociation "Leizming During- Sleep," Vol. 166, (8), 22 Fe bruary 1953, 937-988i 9. Faeitman, Fatbaniel. Sleea and @@lakefulness. Llli-nois: UniversiV of Chicago Przss, 1963, revised a(lition. 10. Kc-astantinovskiy, I.I. "BaU for Class--Sleep P.-wm-cefully," 2 (tranrlated and republished as "@oviet Research on Teaching' During Sleep," "Kiev Higher R@@diotechnical ::ngineering School Teaches English During Sleep" and "Development of a 14--thod of Teaching DurinS Sleep,") @.S: 25,893 Joint Publications 9 Research Service, U.S. Department of Co=orce,, 13 August 1964. 12 11. Kulikov, V.11. "On the Problem of Learnirsg During Sle2p," Voprosy Psikhologii, (2), 1964, 87-9T- 12. Lind-512y, Ogden R. "Oper=t B,-havior During Sleep: A Measure of D23pth of Sleep," acience, Vol- 126, (3286), 1957, 3-290-1291. 13- Pollack, Cecelia. -"Sleep-L,,arning as an A@-d in Taaching Readlag to a Brain-Injured Boy," J. 14ent. Defic.-iRes. Vol. 6, (2), i962, 1012-107. 14. Razran, G.R.S. "The Obsermble Unconscious and the Werable Conscious in Curreat Soviet Ps-ychopbys--rology; Interocey-Uve Condit5oning, Sp-ntic Condition5-ng, and the Orienting Reflex," Psxcbological Revitii llol. 268, (2), ig6l, 81-147. 15. Bazrom, G.B.S. "Russian Physiologists' Ps-chology and American Expe-rimeutal Psychology,. An gistcrical and a Sys-@p- tic Collation and a Look into the Puture," Ps,,@ebological 'BiLIletin, 2 Vol. 63, (1), 42-64,t 1965- 16. Si=n, C.W. & Z=ons, W.H. Considarations f@)r Rasc!arcb in a SleeR Lea@-ning Program Santa Monica, RAM Corp., 1954. 1T. Si=n, C.W. & :-@o=ns, I-I.E. "L2arning During Sl2eep?" Psychological Ril et@in, Vol. 52, 1955, 328-342. 18. Simon, C.@t. & E=nons, ii.H. "Responses to Material Present(2d During Various Levels of Sleep," Jourral of Exnerim@-.ntal Psycholo Vol. 51, (2), 1956, 39-9T. AM%. 13 19. C.w. & Emmons, Consciousnesr. and Sleep*" Science, vol. 124, (3231), 3o Novemb-@r 1956, 1066-lr-69- "Some I=Idiat2e Effects Of Drows' ness =d Sleep 20o simcc, C.W. a 11 Human Fautors, V01- 3, (1), on No,-=I liuman Perform&ncl 196i, 1-lT. 21. Svyzdor.,-h, A.M.' "Perception &nd MeWrY O2f Speech Dllr"ng Dlatural Sle@ep,ft Volrory Ps-ilkhollaii, (i), 1962, 65-80- & Petrovs lu.A. ITor, the Problem 22. ZavalOvail N.D.p.ZuRharl, V.?- (2), i964, 2 of Learning During Sleep," gs-102. various othar T_n addition to +,he selecteel r*ferences listed above, ssessed and corresPOOdence i-ng to sleep learning wzr2e a materials pertp-iln div-idual with government and business bureausp as well as with in vas initiated researchers !in both tbe United Stat's and --eLsts--n '8-7urope to insure comprehensive and up to date coverage of the sleep lenzmlng problem. m mom,@