Answer: Many possible exceptions can be thought of
in advance, and they do seem to present problems.
However, in actual practice, you will rarely encounter
such exceptions, for the scale has been constructed from
typical patterns of recall actually observed. If you do
encounter such an exception, use the rating category
which fits best and which portrays, in a manner
consistent with the rest of your ratings, how much of
your dream you recall. With such exceptions you can't
always be "right," but you can be "appropriate."
      Question: Since you can never be really sure that you
are remembering all of the dream, how can you ever use
the W category?
      Answer: It's best not to get too philosophical or literal
about the rating system. We don't expect perfect recall
of a dream, and if there are no serious and frustrating
gaps in the memory of a dream, use the W rating.

Qualitative Recall
     This second system of rating dream recall is concerned
with the vividness or clarity of the remembered dream.
Whereas the first rating system asked you to estimate
the relative completeness of your memory of the dream,
this second system asks you to rate the vividness of what
you do remember. The various vividness categories of
this qualitative recall rating system ask you to review
your memory of the dream and examine it for the
presence of various qualitative dimensions of experience.
Use of this rating system as a discipline has resulted in
increased richness of memory for dreams.
      To explain the use of this system, we'll take the
example of the Color category: "I was driving down Main
Street in my convertible when the traffic light flashed
red and I had to slam on my brakes." Color is present in
this dream, and is even recorded here, in the word
"red," but does the dreamer recall actually seeing the
redness of the light, or does he recall mainly the idea of a
red light- i.e., "STOP" image? If the recall was mainly of
the idea, the dream would be scored "1" on the color
scale; if the recall was actually of seeing the redness, the

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