Imagine being able to 'unlearn' racism and gender prejudice during a short nap, Daily Mail reports.
That's what scientists claim can happen when simple noises are played while people sleep.
In a new study, researchers were able to significantly reduce prejudice in those who underwent the unique type of training while snoozing.
The findings confirm the idea that sleep provides an opportunity to access deep-rooted beliefs, such as prejudices, that we may not even know we have.
Xiaoqing Hu, who led the study at Northwestern University, said that even he was surprised by the results.
"The usual expectation is that a brief, one-time intervention is not strong enough to have a lasting influence," he said.
"It might be better to use repeated sessions and more extensive training. But our results show how learning, even this type of learning, depends on sleep."
Earlier studies by the Northwestern researchers have revealed memory reactivation during sleep.
Generally, participants first heard distinctive sounds during a learning session. A short period of sleep came next.
After people woke up, what they could remember was changed if learning-related sounds were presented during sleep.
"We call this Targeted Memory Reactivation, because the sounds played during sleep could produce relatively better memory for information cued during sleep compared to information not cued during sleep," said Ken Paller, senior author of the study and professor of psychology.
"For examplssse, we used this procedure to selectively improve spatial memory, such as learning the locations of a set of objects, and skill memory, like learning to play a melody on a keyboard."
The current study was designed to apply the same sort of procedure to counter-stereotype training.
That's what scientists claim can happen when simple noises are played while people sleep.
In a new study, researchers were able to significantly reduce prejudice in those who underwent the unique type of training while snoozing.
The findings confirm the idea that sleep provides an opportunity to access deep-rooted beliefs, such as prejudices, that we may not even know we have.
Xiaoqing Hu, who led the study at Northwestern University, said that even he was surprised by the results.
"The usual expectation is that a brief, one-time intervention is not strong enough to have a lasting influence," he said.
"It might be better to use repeated sessions and more extensive training. But our results show how learning, even this type of learning, depends on sleep."
Earlier studies by the Northwestern researchers have revealed memory reactivation during sleep.
Generally, participants first heard distinctive sounds during a learning session. A short period of sleep came next.
After people woke up, what they could remember was changed if learning-related sounds were presented during sleep.
"We call this Targeted Memory Reactivation, because the sounds played during sleep could produce relatively better memory for information cued during sleep compared to information not cued during sleep," said Ken Paller, senior author of the study and professor of psychology.
"For examplssse, we used this procedure to selectively improve spatial memory, such as learning the locations of a set of objects, and skill memory, like learning to play a melody on a keyboard."
The current study was designed to apply the same sort of procedure to counter-stereotype training.
via Smart Health Shop Forum http://ift.tt/1FLuOJf
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