Sleep
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Based on the methodological assumption that cognitive-psychological study of dream processes (psychoneirics) can be pursued in like manner as in cognitive-psychological study of speech processes (psycholinguistics) and on the substantive assumption that speech and dreaming may share some common production routines, a cognitive-psychological model of dream formation is proposed. A generalized psycholinguistic model of speech production is presented, and then each sequential stage of that model is examined for its aptness to the process of dream production. ⋯ This model is shown to be consistent with various formal properties of the dream, including its central paradox of controlled formal organization in the face of contents that may be "senseless," trivial, or obscure. The model also is shown to suggest several new research paradigms that might be employed both to test its own utility and to generate data more generally relevant to the question of how mental functions are organized during rapid eye movement sleep.