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Sleep and Memory 7  

creative-thinking tasks at a decreased capacity when compared with a  

control group. Karni et al. (1994) observed the damaging effect of  

sleep deprivation on perceptual learning.  

Some studies include a self-report measure for perceived effort,

concentration and the like (e.g., Buboltz, Brown, & Soper, 2001;

Pilcher & Walters, 1997). Participants are asked to report how confident

they are in their performance and to rate that performance. Findings from

these self-report measures are somewhat disturbing. It appears that the

tendency exists, when a person is sleep deprived, to overestimate  

performance. Surprisingly, although Pilcher and Walters (1997) noted that  

sleep deprivation negatively affected the ability of participants to perform

on a test, the participants overestimated their performance. They also rated

themselves as having expended more effort than participants in the control

group did. Perhaps such skewed perception partially explains why college

students often deprive themselves of sleep. If their perception is that

performance is not hindered, there is no incentive to make sleep a

priority.
 
The studies outlined above illustrate multiple types of learning
 
and memory that may be affected by sleep. It is noteworthy that many
 
of these studies used variables and methodologies that are realistic:
 
They involve tasks similar to those that college students are asked to
 

©2008 Thomson & Kaplan University