“Age Regression as a category of techniques provides the opportunity to go back in time, whether it be into the recent or distant past, in order to recover forgotten or repressed memories of significant events or to ‘work through’ old memories in order to reach new conclusions”
- Michael Yapko
“Fundamental to all uncovering of forgotten memories is the notion that, in order to reach them, one must regress in time to the experience that has to be recalled”
- Edgar Barnett
Hypnotic age regression is a phenomenon that exists when a person is hypnotized and receives a suggestion or instruction while hypnotized to recall an event from the past. Depending on the degree of relaxation or depth of hypnosis, the person will recall this past event as though it were occurring now.
In age regression, a hypnotized subject is typically given suggestions to relive an event that occurred at an earlier age and to "be and feel like" a child of that age. In the case of a highly hypnotizable adult, given suggestions to regress to childhood, the changes in behaviour and demeanour are often dramatic. Early theorists embraced these performances as compelling evidence of an actual or at least partial regression to a past psychological or physiological state (Erickson & (Cubic, 1941; Weitzenhoffer & Andre, 1957). Over the past 60 years, a great deal of research has examined hypnotically age-regressed subjects on a broad range of variables (see Barber, 1962; Gebhard, 1961; Yates, 1961, for earlier reviews).
It is now commonly understood that all of our memories are stored in a part of the mind that is not freely available to the active conscious mind. The conscious mind is the mind that we use every day to function in a wakeful state of consciousness. The subconscious is accessible during deeply relaxed states. Although therapists may use different terms and argue over the semantics, it is generally understood that the subconscious mind holds detailed, even photographic records of our entire life experience.
The sub-conscious mind can not easily be accessed by the conscious mind and although many methods and modalities have had reported successes in retrieving past life memories, by far the most reliable and well documented are those that use hypnotherapy.
A traumatised client may well have only a vague memory of events in the past and many of these recollections of traumatic experiences may have been partially or completely repressed by the unconscious mind. Many times when a client reports total memory loss (‘amnesia’) of childhood, it can often indicate to the Hypnotherapists that a trauma of some sort may have occurred in the client’s life.
In ICHP Hypno-psychotherapy there is a thorough ongoing exploration to find the ‘root’ causation and release it. The subconscious mind carries with it a memory of everything the person has experienced. Every experience of an unresolved nature, i.e. one which felt incomplete or left a bad feeling inside, lives on perpetually in the subconscious mind until it is identified and released. As it lives on in the subconscious, one’s perceptions and responses to life experiences are distorted accordingly. Painful experiences which remained unresolved may give rise to a fearful outlook on life.
For example, with regard to obesity, there is almost always some kind of unresolved emotional pattern underlying the weight pattern. For some, it is a fear of sexual advances from the opposite sex; for others, a lack of loving nurturance in one’s life which gave rise to nurturance by food as a substitute for love as a way of dealing with stress. For some, it is a fear of being small and powerless that has given rise to an urge to be bigger and more powerful. For others, hypersensitivity can give rise to added layers of flesh for added buffering from the shocks of the world.
In all such cases, there was some originating event or circumstance during which the person first developed the problematic behaviour as a means of coping. Age regression enables a person to re-experience the time of origination of behaviour and choose to change it or not. Thus one becomes freed from a ‘subconscious compulsion’ whose origins may have long since been forgotten, but whose power over the person persisted. Through regression therapy one achieves the choice to have a new response pattern, a new behaviour.
The following compilation of Research into Hypnotherapeutic Age Regression, Trauma, Amnesia (in the context of repressed memory) and uncovering memories with specific examples of working with patients and gives statistical analysis of Hypno-psychotherapeutic interventions which were used in the treatment of these clients. If you have comments on the following research, or simply ideas, approaches, techniques or opinions, please feel free to post below, or on our discussions page on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=142527652458782
Please visit our website www.hypnosiseire.com for more details or email ichphq@gmail.com
The initial research is on Age Regression, followed by the topic of Amnesia in Hypnotherapy, which deals with memories, and is directly linked with Regression).
AGE REGRESSION
1993
De Pascalis, Vilfredo (1993). EEG spectral analysis during hypnotic induction, hypnotic dream and age regression. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 15,
EEG was recorded monopolarly at frontal (F3, F4), central (C3, C4) and posterior (in the middle of O1-P3-T5 and O2-P4-T6 triangles) derivations during the hypnotic induction of the Stanford Hypnotic Clinical Scale (SHCS) and during performance following suggestions of hypnotic dream and age-regression as expressed in the before-mentioned scale. 10 low-hypnotizable and 9 highly-hypnotizable and right- handed female students participated in one experimental session. Evaluations were Fast- Fourier spectral analyses during the following conditions: waking-rest in eyes-open and eyes-closed condition; early, middle, and late phases of hypnotic induction; rest-hypnosis in eyes closed condition; hypnotic dream and age regression. After spectral analysis of 0 to 44 Hz, the mean spectral amplitude estimates across seven Hz bands (theta 1, 4-6 Hz, theta 2, 6-8 Hz; alpha 1, 8-10 Hz; alpha 2, 10-13 Hz; beta 1, 13-16 Hz; beta 2, 16-20 Hz; beta 3, 20-36 Hz) and the 40-Hz EEG band (36-44 Hz) for each experimental condition were extracted. In eyes-open and -closed conditions in waking and hypnosis highly-hypnotizable subjects produced a greater 40-Hz EEG amplitude than did low hypnotizable subjects at all frontal, central and posterior locations. In the early and middle hypnotic induction highly-hypnotizables displayed a greater amount of beta 3 than did low hypnotizables and this difference was even more pronounced in the left hemisphere. With posterior scalp recordings, during hypnotic dream and age regression, high hypnotizables displayed, as compared with the rest-hypnosis condition, a decrease in alpha 1 and alpha 2 amplitudes. This effect was absent for low hypnotizables. Beta 1, beta 2 and beta 3 amplitudes increased in the left hemisphere during age regression for high hypnotizable; low hypnotizables, in contrast, displayed hemispheric balance across imaginative tasks. High hypnotizables during the hypnotic dream also displayed in the right hemisphere a greater 40-Hz EEG amplitude as compared with the left hemisphere. This difference was even more evident for posterior recording sites. This hemispheric trend was not evidenced for low hypnotizable subjects. Theta power was never a predictor of hypnotic susceptibility, 40-Hz EEG amplitude displayed a very high main effect (p<0.004) for hypnotizability in hypnotic conditions by displaying a greater 40-Hz EEG amplitude in high hypnotizables with respect to lows.
NOTES
In the Discussion section, the authors indicate that they have no idea why they didn't replicate results of other theta studies, including their own, except maybe due to complex interaction among personality, subject selection, situation-specific factors, and hypnotizability.
They observe that the alpha results conform with previous findings (p. 163). Beta bands were sensitive. Highs showed left-hemisphere prevalence in all beta bands during age regression; they also showed hemispheric balance in the hypnotic dream condition. Beta 3 amplitude was also greater among highs than lows. "among high hypnotizables, beta 3 amplitude in the early hypnotic condition was greater in the left hemisphere as compared to the right and as the hypnotic induction proceeded hemisphere balancing, with reduced beta 3 amplitude, was displayed. This result appears in agreement with the predictions of the neurophysiological model proposed by Gruzelier et al. (1984) and Gruzelier (1988) as well as with other studies in which beta rhythm was found to discriminate performances between high and low hypnotizables (e.g., Meszaros et al., 1986, 1989; Sabourin et al., 1990)" (p. 163-164).
40 Hz amplitude was higher in highs and increased in right hemisphere during the hypnotic dream, especially in posterior areas. "This pattern of hemispheric activation may be interpreted as an expression of the greater right-hemisphere activation and of the release of posterior cortical functions during the hypnotic dream and is compatible with the predictions of the Gruzelier model of hypnosis, however, the results obtained in this study for 40-Hz EEG amplitude failed to reveal an inhibition of the left-hemisphere activity with the progress of the hypnotic induction" (p. 164).
(They note that De Pascalis & Penna, 1990, agreed with the Gruzelier 1988 model: highs in early induction had increase of 40-Hz in both hemispheres, but as induction proceeded they had inhibition of left and increase in right hemisphere activity. In this current experiment, only beta 3 showed the hemispheric trend of Gruzelier's model. They cite other details of current study, p. 164, not consonant with Gruzelier.)
"The 40-Hz EEG rhythm, which according to Sheer (1976) is the physiological representation of focused arousal, appeared to discriminate between differential patterns of high and low hypnotizables. Both during hypnotic induction and during hypnotic dream and age regression highly hypnotizables exhibit greater 40-Hz EEG amplitude with respect to the lows. These findings support the validity of the assumption that hypnosis is characterized by a state of focused attention (Hilgard, 1965) and that 40-Hz EEG activity reflects differential attentional patterns among subjects high and low in hypnotizability. On the basis of these findings it would appear that 40-Hz EEG and beta 3 spectral amplitudes may prove to be useful measures of individual hypnotizability" (p. 164).
1988
ravindakshan, K. K.; Jenner, F. A.; Souster, L. P. (1988). A study of the effects of hypnotic regression on the auditory evoked response. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 36, 89-95.
Hypnotic regression in 6 hypnotizable Ss experienced in regression was studied by means of the auditory evoked response (AER). AER latency and amplitude is affected by arousal, attention, stimulus strength, and age. Ss aged between 27 and 61 years were regressed to the age of 7-9 years, and AERs were compared among three states of consciousness: normal awareness, hypnotic relaxation, and hypnotic regression. There was no change in AER morphology in the direction of that seen in children. Thus, age regression is not seen as a reversion to an earlier stage of neurological development but perhaps as role playing which is spontaneous and uninhibited, with the benefit of innocent belief in its accuracy.
NOTES: Raikov (1982) regressed 2 experienced Ss, comparing his results with those of actors acting as children and low hypnotizable subjects; he claimed to be able to reproduce neonatal reflexes in the highly hypnotizable Ss but not in the actors and low hypnotizable subjects.
AER's were used "because latency of the major waves and amplitude of the response is affected by level of arousal and attention..., strength of the stimulus, and, more importantly for this study, by age.... Surwillo (1981) noted that peak latencies of AERs were 16-21 msec longer in children aged 9-13 than in adults..." (p. 90)
DISCUSSION reviews the literature. "Changes in the intensity of light stimulation can cause significant shifts in the amplitude and latency of the visual evoked response, but neither the amplitude nor the latency have been changed by suggested alterations in stimulus intensity during hypnosis (Andreassi, Balinsky, Gallichio, de Simone, & Mellers, 1976; Beck & Barolin, 1965; Beck, Dustman, & Beier, 1966; Zakrzewski & Szelenberger, 1981). Similarly, significant changes were seldom found in the AER with suggested variations of sound intensity during hypnosis (Amadeo & Yanovski, 1975) and in somatosensory responses to electrical stimuli applied to the fingers with suggested anesthesia during hypnosis (Halliday & Mason, 1964). Deehan and Robertson (1980) were able to abolish the AER completely during hypnosis, but their stimuli were very different from that used in the present study.
"In all such studies, hypnosis and suggestions were aimed at changing the intensity of the stimulus to S's awareness, while the actual intensity of the stimulus was unaltered. In the present study, the authors attempted to find whether the morphology of the AER in children could be reproduced by age regression, without altering the nature or intensity of the stimulus in its delivery.... Like previous investigators, the present authors noticed that the tracings were cleaner and easier to produce during hypnosis (see Figure 1), although the changes in neurological development observed by Raikov (1982) were not evident" (pp. 93-94).
1988-1999
Brink, Nicholas E. (1988-89). Using imagery as a planning and treatment guide in therapy. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 8, 187-200.
Procedures and case studies of how imagery can provide a means to redefine the problem, an agenda for therapy, information for determining the appropriate interventions, a criteria for evaluating progress, and the appropriate time for termination are presented. Images are evoked using one of several imagery situations. These images may converge on the common dynamic pattern clarifying the problem, represent different aspects of the problem, or represent different problems, depending upon the hypnotic suggestion used in evoking the images. The emerging pattern(s) provide the agenda for therapy. Emotional energy in imagery work is used to determine the appropriate timing and content for the therapeutic interventions. Emotional release provides a means of evaluating progress. When each of the items on the agenda are resolved with an emotional release the time for termination is near at hand. Therapy begins by evoking a minimum of three images using one of several situations, including time regression, seeing behind doors on a hallway, or going down in an elevator. These images may represent different aspects of the problem, different problems, or, by using the affect bridge, may converge on a common dynamic pattern clarifying the nature of a single problem.
1961
Barber, Theodore Xenophon (1961). Experimental evidence for a theory of hypnotic behaviour: II. Experimental controls in hypnotic age-regression. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 9, 181-193.
5 studies are often cited in support of the contention that involuntary infantile or childhood behavior patterns are revived under hypnotic age-regression. These studies are presented and re-evaluated in terms of other experimental evidence. The author concludes that the "good" hypnotic subject may vividly imagine that he is a child and may perform childlike behavior; "however, it has not been demonstrated that during ''hypnotic age-regression'' earlier patterns of behavior are revived that could not be performed voluntarily by an appropriately motivated but unhypnotized adult. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4II81B. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
1959
NOTES
"Summary and Conclusions
"Summary and Conclusions
"Six 'good' hypnotic Ss were given a ten-minute 'hypnotic induction' and a series of 'hypnotic tests.' Both basic skin conductance and momentary variations in skin conductance (GSR) were recorded during the experiment.
"The results were as follows:
1. There was no significant variation in skin conductance during the 'hypnotic induction procedure.'
2. Skin conductance generally increased throughout the remainder of the experiment, ie., when the Ss wre given suggestions of 'sensory hallucinations,' 'age-regression,' 'analgesia,' 'negative hallucinations,' and 'post'-hypnotic behavior.
3. The Ss usually showed a GSR when they were given 'hallucinatory' suggestions, i.e., when they were told that they were becoming 'itchy,' 'thirsty,' and 'very hot.'
4. The GSR to a pinprick was essentially the same before the experiment and during 'hypnotic analgesia.' Also, the GSR was essentially the same, during 'hypnotic analgesia,' (a) when three Ss were told they would receive a pinprick but did _not_ receive the pinprick, (b) when they were told they would receive a pinprick and _did_ receive the pinprick, and (c) when they received a pinprick without being told they would receive it.
5. Four Ss showed a GSR each time they were asked to look at a 'negatively hallucinated' object and person. Two Ss did _not_ show a GSR when they were asked to look at the 'negatively hallucinated' object (or person). The four Ss who showed a GSR stated, during or after the experiment, that they were by no means convinced that the person or object was no longer in the room. The two Ss who did not show GSR stated, after the experiment, that they had been 'certain' that the object (or person) was not present in the room.
6. Although the Ss stated that they did not 'remember' the 'post'-hypnotic suggestion (or anything else about the experiment), they usually showed a GSR when the E made the _preliminary_ movements to give the signal for the 'post'-hypnotic behavior. (They also showed a GSR when E gave the signal for the 'post'hypnotic behavior.)
"Since skin conductance is an index of the S's level of 'activation,' 'arousal,' or 'excitation,' these results indicate the following:
1. Ss do not necessarily become more 'passive' or 'relaxed' during the 'hypnotic induction procedure.'
2. Ss often become more and more 'excited' and 'aroused' when they are given a series of 'active' suggestions such as 'sensory hallucinations,' 'age-regression,' etc.
3. Ss often show momentary 'excitement' when they are 'hallucinating.'
5. Many Ss become momentarily 'excited' when they are asked to look directly at an object (or person) which they have been told they will not be able to see. However, _some_ Ss do _not_ show this momentary 'excitement.'
6. Although Ss may state that they do not 'remember' the 'post'-hypnotic suggestion, they often become momentarily 'excited' when the E makes _preliminary_ motions to give the signal for the 'post'-hypnotic act" (pp. 90-92).
Fellows BJ. Creamer M. An investigation of the role of 'hypnosis', hypnotic susceptibility and hypnotic induction in the production of age regression. British Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology 1978;17(2):165-71 In response to criticisms of the methodology of Barber's(1969)experiments, a 2x2 factorial design, varying hypnotic susceptibility and hypnotic treatment, was used to study the role of 'hypnosis' in the production of age regression by suggestion. Twenty subjects of high hypnotic susceptibility and 20 subjects of low hypnotic susceptibility were randomly allocated to one of two treatment conditions:hypnotic induction procedure or motivational instructions. Both treatments were followed by suggestions to regress to the age of seven years. Two measures of age regression were taken:the Draw-A-Man-Test and a subjective rating of the reality of the experience.
The results showed significant effects of both variables, with high suceptibility and induction treatment producing better regression on both measures than low susceptibility and motivation treatment. Hypnotic susceptibility was the stronger of the two variables. The ranking of the four conditions corresponded with predictions of hypnotic depth from the state theory of hypnosis, but the findings were not inconsistent with the non-state theory. The drawings of all regressed groups were more mature than the norms for the age of seven and the drawings of a group of seven year old children.
O'Brien RM. Kramer CE. Chiglinsky MA. Stevens GE. Nunan LJ. Fritzo JA. Moral development examined through hypnotic and task motivated age regression. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis 1977;19(4):209-13 Thirty 17-28 yr old volunteers who had scored above 8 on the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C, were randomly assigned to 3 groups (hypnosis, task motivation, and control).
The 2 treatment groups were age regressed to the 1st grade. They were then examined through 5 moral dilemma stories to ascertain their level of functioning on L. Kohlberg's (1968) stage theory of moral development. The control group experienced the same examination without age regression. Results show that both treatment groups were at a significantly lower moral stage than the control group but that there was no significant difference between the 2 groups of age-regressed Subjects. In addition, it was found that a group of 10 actual 1st graders gave answers that were at a much lower level than those of the age-regressed Subjects. These results demonstrate cognitive age regression on Kohlberg's stages of moral development. They also suggest that task motivation situations are as efficient as hypnosis in producing this phenomenon.
1994
Freyd, Jennifer J. (1994). Betrayal-trauma: Traumatic amnesia as an adaptive response to childhood abuse. Ethics and Behavior, 4.
Betrayal-trauma theory suggests that psychogenic amnesia is an adaptive response to childhood abuse. When a parent or other powerful figure violates a fundamental ethic of human relationships, victims may need to remain unaware of the trauma not to reduce suffering but rather to promote survival. Amnesia enables the child to maintain an attachment with a figure vital to survival, development, and thriving. Analysis of evolutionary pressures, mental modules, social cognitions, and developmental needs suggests that the degree to which the most fundamental human ethics are violated can influence the nature, form, processes, and responses to trauma.
NOTES 1:
NOTES: "A logical extension of this research direction, based on a strategy that has been very effective in cognitive neuroscience, would be to look for neuroanatomical underpinnings of the cognitive mechanisms implicated in dissociation. ... For instance, the ability to dissociate current experience may depend partly on representational structures that support spontaneous perceptual transformations of incoming events. One possible perceptual transformation that is amenable to scientific investigation, would be the creation of spatial representations in which the mental 'observer' is spatially distinct from the real body of that observer. Such a representation would fit patient descriptions of 'leaving their body' during a traumatic episode and viewing the scene as if from afar. Additionally one could investigate the role of mental recoding and restructuring during memory 'recovery' and psychotherapy" (pp. 19-20).
NOTES: "A logical extension of this research direction, based on a strategy that has been very effective in cognitive neuroscience, would be to look for neuroanatomical underpinnings of the cognitive mechanisms implicated in dissociation. ... For instance, the ability to dissociate current experience may depend partly on representational structures that support spontaneous perceptual transformations of incoming events. One possible perceptual transformation that is amenable to scientific investigation, would be the creation of spatial representations in which the mental 'observer' is spatially distinct from the real body of that observer. Such a representation would fit patient descriptions of 'leaving their body' during a traumatic episode and viewing the scene as if from afar. Additionally one could investigate the role of mental recoding and restructuring during memory 'recovery' and psychotherapy" (pp. 19-20).
1970
Fromm, Erika (1970). Age regression with unexpected reappearance of a repressed childhood language. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 18, 79-88.
Describes the case of a 26-yr-old, 3rd-generation Japanese-American who thought he knew no Japanese. When hypnotically age-regressed to levels below age 4, he spontaneously and unexpectedly spoke Japanese, while only English was spoken at the adult and age-regression levels above 4 yr. The psychodynamics of the S''s repression of the childhood language and questions pertaining to the nature and theory of age regression are discussed. (Spanish & German summaries) (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved)
AMNESIA
Schnyer DM. Allen JJ. Attention-related electroencephalographic and event-related potential predictors of responsiveness to suggested posthypnotic amnesia. International Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis 1995;43(3):295-315 Higher frequency electroencephalographic (EEG) activity around 40 Hz has been shown to play a role in cognitive functions such as attention. Furthermore, event-related brain potential (ERP) components such as N1 and P1 are sensitive to selective attention. In the present study, 40-Hz EEG measures and early ERP components were employed to relate selective attention to hypnotic response. Participants were 20 low hypnotizable individuals, half assigned as simulators, and 21 high hypnotizable individuals. Each of these groups was subsequently divided into two groups based on recognition amnesia scores. The four groups differed in 40-Hz (36-44 Hz) EEG spectral amplitude recorded during preinduction resting conditions but not in EEG amplitude postinduction. The groups also differed in N1 amplitudes recorded during hypnosis. Regression analysis revealed that these effects only distinguish the high hypnotizable participants who experienced recognition amnesia from all other groups. The findings support the role of selective attention in hypnotic responsiveness, and the utility of subdividing high hypnotizable individuals is discussed.
Simon MJ, Salzberg HC The effect of manipulated expectancies on posthypnotic amnesia Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 1985;33(1):40-51 The effects of manipulated S expectancy and direct suggestions for amnesia on posthypnotic amnesia were assessed. 120 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to 6 groups: negative expectancy (for amnesia)/suggestions (for amnesia); no expectancy/suggestions; negative expectancy/no suggestions; no expectancy/no suggestions; and 2 control groups. The results indicated that the expectancy manipulation had no effect on the occurrence of posthypnotic amnesia measured by the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form A (Weitzenhoffer & Hilgard, 1959), whereas suggestions for amnesia were found to have a significant effect. Hypnotized suggestion and no suggestion Ss remembered significantly less than Ss in the nonhypnotized control groups. The implications of the findings were discussed.
1995
Bowers, Kenneth S. (1995, November). Revisiting a Century-Old Freudian Slip -- from Suggestion Disavowed to the Truth Repressed. [Paper] Presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, San Antonio , TX
NOTES 1:
Cites J. Herman, Mason, and Miller who accused Freud of retreating from trauma theory to save his theory. Feminists view the Oedipal theory as a coverup for the denial of child sexual abuse. This moral position fuels trauma theory and practice. It is the moral dimension of this debate that gives so many problems for the investigation of traumatic memory.
Cites J. Herman, Mason, and Miller who accused Freud of retreating from trauma theory to save his theory. Feminists view the Oedipal theory as a coverup for the denial of child sexual abuse. This moral position fuels trauma theory and practice. It is the moral dimension of this debate that gives so many problems for the investigation of traumatic memory.
The intellectual origins of repressed trauma are examined here. Freud's early trauma theory, his later conflict theory.
Etiology of Hysteria (1896) presents Freud's argument, based on 18 patients: child is passive victim of experience imposed on them; memory is repressed and hysterical symptoms are derivatives of these repressed memories; when memories return as pictures the task of therapy is easier than if returning as thoughts. Bartlett
The fact that patients had to be compelled to remember was offered by Freud as evidence against the idea that the memories were suggested. The patients initially would deny the reality of their memories, which Freud used in saying that we should not think that patients would falsely accuse themselves. In letter to Fleiss, he presented the conflict theory, which he presented in 1905 in Three Essays on Sexuality and later in My Views...on Etiology of Neurosis.
In 1905 Freud indicated he was unable to distinguish fantasy from true reports (and did not deny the existence of the latter). Freud often reconstructed the "memories" from dreams, transference, signs, symptoms, fantasies, etc. They were not produced as conscious memories, and it was Freud who inferred the sexual abuse. From signs of distress he took evidence of proof.
Freud presented his theory to his patients and then sought confirmation.
Freud asks us to abandon historical for narrative truth. The problems with Freud's first theory became worse with his second theory. In Introductory Lectures Freud states that opponents say his treatment talks patients into confirming his theories. He relies on the patient's inner reality confirming the theoretical ideas given to him. Success depends on overcoming internal resistance, however. The danger in leading a patient astray by suggestion has been exaggerated, because the analyst would have had to not allow the patient to "have his say." Freud denied strongly ever having done this.
Incorrect interpretations would not be accepted by the patients, and if believed would be suggestion. Brunbaum, another writer, said that this doesn't mean acceptance of a faulty idea won't occur. Both Milton Erickson and especially Pierre Janet reported cases in which suggestions were used to give benign memories to replace malignant ones.
Freud also viewed patient resistance to his interpretations as evidence that the interpretations were correct. Thus both resistance and acquiescence were thought to be validating. Popper's critiques using philosophy of science note that this makes his theory untestable.
Freud could not distinguish between the patient's reluctant acceptance of the truth and reluctant acceptance of a suggestion.
Contemporary theorists struggle less than Freud did with the problem of suggestion and suggestibility (and Freud did not have available the research on those areas!) Emotional upheaval that accompanies "insight" is readily taken to be validating. It may be true that bad memories are repressed, but that doesn't mean that all bad memories are true.
Treatment groups focus on recalling memories and sharing memories with others in the group, not on current relationships. Hermann states that the group provides powerful stimulus for remembering. The group, of course, is reinforced by others remembering. Repeatedly considering the possibility of abuse can increase the sense of familiarity.
Current views expressed by some clinicians that certain symptoms and syndromes (eating disorders, etc.) indicate early sexual trauma are similar to Freud's theory of hysteria. In these proposals, the inability to recall abuse becomes evidence that it occurred; and it tallies with the patient not having a sense of remembering.
Because some believe it is necessary to bring memory to light for cure to occur, there is a tendency to believe the reports of early childhood abuse.
Recognizing that some "memories" may have been a product of a therapist's suggestion helps prevent untoward effects. Modern therapists recapitulate Freud's "slip" when they do not acknowledge the role of suggestion.
Endorsing repression does not commit us to a belief that recovered memories must be accurate in all particulars. A memory that is repressed does not escape the usual kinds of degradation of memory.
And just because the material comes from unconscious sources, or has emotional accompaniments, it doesn't mean it is true. (Bowers gave an example of his dream that Israel and Venezuela shared a common border, which was rectified by his waking awareness of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean . He noted that nothing like the Atlantic can be called upon if the dream is that one's parent molested oneself at the age of six.)
Ian Hacking, in Rewriting the Soul, labels a more fundamental indeterminacy (for the historical past itself). Bathing rituals in childhood can be redescribed as abuse, which determines the historical past rather than describing it. It is thus easier to justify abuse if the event is something that can be reinterpreted. For example, the conflicts of adolescents with their parents, may be reinterpreted later if personality problems continue. If in adulthood one concludes that abuse occurred, then bathing rituals can be reinterpreted as if it were earlier abuse, as if the abuse has continued for years.
1994
Farvolden, Peter; Bowers, Kenneth. S.; Woody, Erik Z. (1994, October). Hypnotic amnesia: Avoiding the intentional loop. [Paper] Presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, San Francisco
NOTES 1:
Social-cognitive position is that suggestions for amnesia lead to motivated attempts to forget, and the sense of nonvolition is due to attributional error. Neo- dissociation position is that post-hypnotic amnesia is activated by suggestions, and material is not available to consciousness. Ss may mistakenly attribute their amnesia to their own efforts, or to their imaginings. (See their analgesia studies.)
Social-cognitive position is that suggestions for amnesia lead to motivated attempts to forget, and the sense of nonvolition is due to attributional error. Neo- dissociation position is that post-hypnotic amnesia is activated by suggestions, and material is not available to consciousness. Ss may mistakenly attribute their amnesia to their own efforts, or to their imaginings. (See their analgesia studies.)
Used a recall organization paradigm. Ss learn 16 item categorized word list, then are given suggestion to forget one category. After suggestion is canceled, Ss are told to report again. In their heart rate study, highs were amnestic and recalled words not targeted for amnesia. Highs weren't trying to forget, even though they were experiencing things happening cognitively during the waiting period.
Study II. One group of highs engaged in a distraction task, which would prevent their participating in task relevant practice. Ss in the distraction condition recalled fewer words, just as in the standard hypnosis condition. However, their subjective report indicated they had even a stronger feeling that something had happened beyond their volition or control than did Ss in the standard hypnotic condition.
It appears that task relevant thoughts and imagery reported by Highs are not necessary. They are co-suggestion effects. See Hargedon, Bowers, & Woody in similar work, on analgesia. However, during the recall period Highs did not work as hard as the Lows in trying to remember according to both their self-reports and the heart rate measure.
Freyd, Jennifer J. (1994). Betrayal-trauma: Traumatic amnesia as an adaptive response to childhood abuse. Ethics and Behavior, 4.
Betrayal-trauma theory suggests that psychogenic amnesia is an adaptive response to childhood abuse. When a parent or other powerful figure violates a fundamental ethic of human relationships, victims may need to remain unaware of the trauma not to reduce suffering but rather to promote survival. Amnesia enables the child to maintain an attachment with a figure vital to survival, development, and thriving. Analysis of evolutionary pressures, mental modules, social cognitions, and developmental needs suggests that the degree to which the most fundamental human ethics are violated can influence the nature, form, processes, and responses to trauma.
NOTES 1:
"A logical extension of this research direction, based on a strategy that has been very effective in cognitive neuroscience, would be to look for neuroanatomical underpinnings of the cognitive mechanisms implicated in dissociation. ... For instance, the ability to dissociate current experience may depend partly on representational structures that support spontaneous perceptual transformations of incoming events. One possible perceptual transformation that is amenable to scientific investigation, would be the creation of spatial representations in which the mental 'observer' is spatially distinct from the real body of that observer. Such a representation would fit patient descriptions of 'leaving their body' during a traumatic episode and viewing the scene as if from afar. Additionally one could investigate the role of mental recoding and restructuring during memory 'recovery' and psychotherapy" (pp. 19-20)
"A logical extension of this research direction, based on a strategy that has been very effective in cognitive neuroscience, would be to look for neuroanatomical underpinnings of the cognitive mechanisms implicated in dissociation. ... For instance, the ability to dissociate current experience may depend partly on representational structures that support spontaneous perceptual transformations of incoming events. One possible perceptual transformation that is amenable to scientific investigation, would be the creation of spatial representations in which the mental 'observer' is spatially distinct from the real body of that observer. Such a representation would fit patient descriptions of 'leaving their body' during a traumatic episode and viewing the scene as if from afar. Additionally one could investigate the role of mental recoding and restructuring during memory 'recovery' and psychotherapy" (pp. 19-20)
Scheflin, Alan W. (1994). Forensic hypnosis: Unanswered questions. Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 22, 25-37.
Many courts have mistakenly identified hypnosis as more suggestive than eyewitness testimony or leading questions, and therefore these courts have applied unnecessarily restrictive rulings on hypnosis. The dangers of suggestion in eyewitness and interrogation cases pose reliability problems that are equally as great. In all situations, pre- trial evidentiary hearings on admissibility of 'suggestive' testimony is essential. Expert testimony should be available to assist the judge. The forensic rules to date have failed to clarify some hard cases. In resolving these cases, courts are encouraged to adopt a case- by-case analysis rather than a total prohibition on hypnotically refreshed recollection. Courts have assumed conclusions about hypnosis that the laboratory experiments suggest are incorrect - juries are not overly persuaded by hypnosis testimony, there is no inevitable concreting effect and witnesses do not become impervious to cross-examination. Thus, the restrictive per se disqualification rules for hypnotically refreshed recollection are too severe
Woody, Erik Z. (1994, October). Cognitive-processing models of hypnotic dissociation. [Paper] Presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, San Francisco
NOTES 1:
Spanos contended that social psychology is an appropriate ground for hypnosis, and his work highlights the value of not taking things at face value (e.g. feelings of nonvolition).
Spanos contended that social psychology is an appropriate ground for hypnosis, and his work highlights the value of not taking things at face value (e.g. feelings of nonvolition).
I did this research with Ken Bowers. It addresses the question, does non-volition occupy a small role in hypnosis, or are hypnotic responses performed intentionally despite the hypnotized person's feeling of non-volition.
We did not rely on the research Subject's verbal report. When one exerts intentional effort to suppress a thought, the thought gets stronger. For example, when people try to comply with instruction not to think about white bears, they think about them repeatedly (Waitner's research).
Hypnosis suggestions are for amnesia (inability to remember), not intentional forgetting.
STUDY ONE. We used Waitner type instructions vs hypnosis in high and low hypnotizability Ss, to examine the role of intention in response. We used thinking about one's favorite automobile instead of a white bear as the task stimulus. Subjects were not to think about it for 2 minutes, but to press a button whenever a thought about the automobile surfaced. There was another waking trial with suggestions; then hypnosis and re-testing.
Ss were undergraduates screened on Harvard Scale for hypnotizability and the Waterloo Stanford Group form. High hypnotizables scored 8 or more on both scales, lows scored 4 or less on both.
The variables recorded were total number of button presses, and average length of time per press. Analysis was by a 3 way mixed model ANOVA: high low, induction condition, and suggestion condition (blank mind vs. amnesia)
RESULTS.
Mean Number of Button Pushes Over Trials Group Waking Hypnosis
blank amnesia blank amnesia
mind mind High 6.9 2.9 1.8 .6 Low 5.2 4.7 4.3 3.7
1993
Woody, Erik Z. (1993, October). Factors, facets, and fiddle-faddle. [Paper] Presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Arlington Heights , IL
NOTES 1:
The classic suggestion effect implies involuntary behavior. A theory by Norman & Tim Shallice (published in a book on cognitive neuropsychology by Shallice) explains the classic suggestion effect in terms of underlying control processes.
The classic suggestion effect implies involuntary behavior. A theory by Norman & Tim Shallice (published in a book on cognitive neuropsychology by Shallice) explains the classic suggestion effect in terms of underlying control processes.
There are 2 complementary systems: 1. contention scheduling (routine acts that don't require conscious control, activating schemas through environmental events and other schemas) for well learned habitual tasks. 2. supervisory attentional system - nonroutine actions in centralized processes, accessing unique information, operating only indirectly by modulating lower level control system, biasing their selection of schemas by system #1.
These two systems permit the sense of behavior being automatic or willed. The theory can be used to explain hypnotic nonvolition. For highs, hypnosis may partly disable System #2, dissociating lower levels of control and resulting in genuine changes in behavior because System #1 would be more enabled, triggered directly by co-active schemas and environmental stimuli. This increased dependence on a lower level of control would not rule out a wide range of behavior. It's mainly novel or very complex behaviors that would diminish, plus exercise of will.
The model also illuminates our understanding of behavioral rigidity and the tendency for thought/action to be triggered by [suggestions?]. Spontaneous voluntary behavior would be diminished. (See for example Orne's studies of the effect of apparent power outage during an experiment, in which high hypnotizable Ss did not move or leave the room but sat passively, whereas low hypnotizable simulating Ss simply got up and left.)
Also a weaker "supervisor" would lead to disinhibition of inappropriate or peculiar associations or behavior. In labs one sees few such triggers, although Hilgard observed drug flashbacks. The phenomena of hypnosis sequelae appear like a disinhibition of experiences.
Hypnotic analgesia follows this model too, an automatic and controlled processing of perceptual input.
Amnesia that follows hypnosis can be explained by this theory. Shallice has a model of how memory is affected: memory is a higher control system, enabling the handling of non-routine situations. Confronted by a nonroutine memory problem, the supervisory system formulates a model of what [the information] should look like, pulls out memories, and compares the model. If hypnosis interferes with the supervisor function it should interfere with memory (the description and verification phases) leading to [hypnotic amnesia?]. [With hypnosis one would predict]: 1. Poor access to memories requiring description (not overlearned material). Recall should demonstrate good cued memory but poor free recall. [It has been observed that] hypnotic amnesia selectively impairs free recall rather than recognition recall. 2. Hypnotized Ss should show poorer verification (the ability to discriminate irrelevant from correct associations). Many studies have shown this, with impoverished verification (e.g. the "discovery" of elaborate previous lives).
A dissociated control theory of hypnosis is thus possible, emphasizing a loss of control of supervisory system processes. It would implicate changes in frontal lobe processing. The essence of hypnosis, according to this approach, is the bypassing of executive control, and the frontal lobe is viewed as a center of executive control.
There are several ways that hypnosis suggests inhibition of frontal lobe functioning: 1. impoverishment of self initiated behavior 2. other-directedness 3. frontal amnesia (unable to distinguish true memories from irrelevant memories; prone to confabulation, especially when probed with false information) 4. poorer in temporal or sequential organization in memory.
How do we proceed to make this theoretical approach useful? We should do more neuropsychological studies, as Helen Crawford does. They emphasize the inhibition of frontal lobe functions.
Testable hypotheses arise: 1. Hypnotizable Ss should show the same kind of problem solving problems as frontal lobe patients. 2. Memory of hypnotized Ss should be like patients with frontal amnesia.
1992
Barrett, Deidre (1992). Fantasizers and dissociaters: Data on two distinct subgroups of deep trance subjects. Psychological Reports, 71, 1011-1014
The study delineated two subgroups of highly hypnotizable subjects. The first subgroup (fantasizers) entered trance rapidly, scored high on absorption (mean of 34 on the 37-item Absorption Scale), and described hypnosis as much like their rich, vivid, and very realistic waking fantasy life. None of the fantasizers experienced unsuggested amnesia, and 5/19 failed to produce suggested amnesia. Only 2/19 fantasizers described hypnosis as very different from their other experiences. The earliest memories of fantasizers were all identified as occurring before age 3, and before age 2 for 11 of 19. The second subgroup (dissociaters) took time to achieve a deep trance (unlike Wilson and Barber's fantasy-prone subjects, but they did achieve as deep a trance as fantasizers), experienced hypnosis as different from any prior experiences, and were more likely to exhibit amnesia for both hypnotic experience and waking fantasies. None of the dissociaters described their waking imagery as entirely realistic, and the earliest memories in this group were all over the age of 3 (mean age - 5). Of the 15 dissociaters, 7 scored below the norm on the Absorption Scale (Mean - 26).
Crawford, Helen J.; Kitner-Triolo, Melissa; Clarke, Steven W.; Olesko, Brian (1992). Transient positive and negative experiences accompanying stage hypnosis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 101 (4), 663-667.
Frequency of positive and negative experiences accompanying stage hypnosis was assessed in follow-up interviews with 22 participants of university-sponsored performances. Most subjects described their experience positively (relaxing, interesting, exciting, satisfying, illuminating, and pleasurable), but some described it negatively (confusing, silly, annoying, and frightening). Five subjects (22.7%) reported partial or complete amnesia; all were highly responsive to the stage hypnosis suggestions. One subject was completely unable to breach amnesia and felt annoyed and frightened. Five subjects (22.7%) believed the hypnotist had control over their behavior. Participants (n=15) tested subsequently on the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C (Weitzenhoffer & Hilgard, 1962) were mostly moderately to highly hypnotizable (M = 7.07), and the scores correlated significantly (r = .68) with the percentage of passed stage hypnosis suggestions.
NOTES 1:
Echterling and Emmerling (1987, American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis) conducted a follow-up of 18 people who participated in stage hypnosis at a university, within a month after the experience. Referring back to the hypnosis itself, 39% reported positive experiences, 39% reported both positive and negative experiences, and 22% (four people) reported 'strongly negative' experiences. The present study contacted subjects immediately after the stage hypnosis experience, either in person or by telephone. They completed both objective questions and open-ended questions referring to three time periods: after the hypnotic induction, during the hypnotic suggestions, and after the stage hypnosis had been terminated. Subjects were invited to come to the laboratory to be tested for hypnotizability, and 15 of the 22 did return for testing.
Echterling and Emmerling (1987, American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis) conducted a follow-up of 18 people who participated in stage hypnosis at a university, within a month after the experience. Referring back to the hypnosis itself, 39% reported positive experiences, 39% reported both positive and negative experiences, and 22% (four people) reported 'strongly negative' experiences. The present study contacted subjects immediately after the stage hypnosis experience, either in person or by telephone. They completed both objective questions and open-ended questions referring to three time periods: after the hypnotic induction, during the hypnotic suggestions, and after the stage hypnosis had been terminated. Subjects were invited to come to the laboratory to be tested for hypnotizability, and 15 of the 22 did return for testing.
Of the 22 Ss, 4 had previously participated in stage hypnosis, one in laboratory hypnosis, and one had been hypnotized by her father. Of the 15 tested with the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C: 7 were high hypnotizables (scoring 9-12), 7 were medium hypnotizables (scoring 4-8), and one was a low hypnotizable (scoring 0-3). Several people reported that they 'went along with' the hypnotist's suggestions, role playing rather than actually experiencing the suggestions.
"Most of the subjects found the experience positive: 86.4%, relaxing; 86.4%, interesting; 77.3%, exciting; 59.0%, satisfying; 54.6% illuminating; and 54.6%, pleasurable. Negative experiences were also reported: 36.4%, confusing; 36.4%, silly; 9.1%, annoying; and 9.1%, frightening. Only 1 subject reported the stage hypnosis experience as entirely negative.
"The stage hypnotists told the participants about the suggestions at the end of the stage hypnosis performance and supposedly lifted amnesia. Despite this, some participants continued to experience partial or full amnesia for the suggestions. ...
"One participant reported complete amnesia even after the interview and was distraught, permitting only a telephone interview and not accepting an offer to be hypnotized at a later time to help recall what had been forgotten. ...
"... The interviewer told her what had been observed and attempted to breach the amnesia. The subject continued to report complete amnesia.
"Two other participants continued not to remember many of the suggestions but showed no major concern. Waking suggestions to breach amnesia were given, but no further information was obtained.
"Five participants reported feeling that the hypnotist had complete control over their behavior and that they could not resist the hypnotist's suggestions" (p. 664).
In their Discussion, the authors note that in general, when negative experiences occur, they tend to be mild and transient. None of the subjects in this investigation reported some of the negative sequelae reported in earlier literature (headaches, nausea, drowsiness). The few subjects who had strong cognitive distortions following hypnosis were highly hypnotizable, which also was observed in an earlier study published by the first author and her colleagues (Crawford, Hilgard, & Macdonald, 1982, International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis).
Spontaneous post hypnotic amnesia is one example of cognitive distortion. The authors remarked on the rather high incidence of spontaneous amnesia for some specific suggestions (22.7%) , which was discovered when friends of the subjects described to them what they had done on stage. In an experimental study by Hilgard and Cooper (1965), only 7% of student subjects had spontaneous amnesia (though 35% had amnesia following suggestions for posthypnotic amnesia). Furthermore, in the Hilgard and Cooper study, hypnotizability correlated with suggested amnesia but not with spontaneous amnesia. Cooper (1972) reviewed the literature on posthypnotic amnesia and observed that spontaneous occurrence is less frequent than suggested amnesia.
Explanations of spontaneous amnesia include ideas that high hypnotizables who experience it are significantly different from those who do not (Chertok, 1981; Weitzenhoffer, 1989); or that it is due to expectancy (Kirsch, 1985); or that it is found in people with a tendency for dissociation in and out of hypnosis, or people who may be prone to repression or dissociative and post-traumatic stress disorders. For reviews of these issues, see Kihlstrom, 1987; Kihlstrom & Hoyt, 1990; Frankel, 1990; Nemiah, 1985; Spiegel, 1990; Spiegel & Cardena, 1991).
The authors note that stage hypnotists, while they may otherwise be ethical, do not provide information to subjects to correct misperceptions about hypnosis. For example, in this study 22.7% of the subjects believed, after the stage hypnosis experience, that the hypnotist had control over their behavior and they couldn't resist the suggestions. "Appropriate guidelines for stage hypnosis (see also Crawford et al., 1982) include screening out participants who are in therapy or counseling, correcting misperceptions about hypnosis among the participants before the hypnosis begins, screening subjects prior to hypnosis, avoiding embarrassing or upsetting suggestions, providing dehypnosis instructions to those who do not remain in hypnosis (or are asked to leave the performance), terminating fully the hypnotic experience, removing all amnesia suggestions and reviewing the events at the end of hypnotic experience, and remaining available afterward for further questions" (p. 666).
Faller, Kathleen Couborn (1992, Summer). Can therapy induce false allegations of sexual abuse?. The Advisor (Published by American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children), 5 (3), 3-6.
NOTES 1:
"Concern about the impact of therapy on children's accounts of sexual abuse should be understood in the context of two phenomena: (1) the adult need to deny that children are sexually abused, and (2) adult identification with the alleged abuser. These phenomena operate at both individual and societal levels" (p. 3).
"Concern about the impact of therapy on children's accounts of sexual abuse should be understood in the context of two phenomena: (1) the adult need to deny that children are sexually abused, and (2) adult identification with the alleged abuser. These phenomena operate at both individual and societal levels" (p. 3).
"Research related to impact of stressful situations on children's ability to recall provides mixed results, some studies finding children are less accurate if the event is traumatic (Peters, 1991) and others finding they are not (Goodman, Reed, & Hepps, 1985).
"Research reveals that it is rare for children to falsely allege that they have been touched in their private parts. In one study, a substantial proportion of children who experienced genital and anal touch during a physical examination by a doctor did not volunteer this information when asked general questions about the examination. The majority of children in the study revealed genital and anal touch only when they were asked specific questions like, "Did the doctor touch you there?" (Saywitz, Goodman, Nicholas, & Moan, 1991)" (pp. 3-4).
"Clarke-Stewart and her colleagues (1989) have demonstrated that children's interpretation of ambiguous events can be manipulated and altered by an authority figure who insists upon a particular interpretation (see also Lindberg, 1991)" (p.4).
"In sum, the research suggests that older children are likely to provide more complete unassisted disclosure than younger children. Younger children may need more memory cues in the form of specific questions than older children. Therapists are much more likely to find false negatives than false positives. Finally, therapists should be aware of the possibility the child may identify the wrong person. ... Generally, however, the research indicates that concern about the contaminating effects of therapy on children's recollections of sexual abuse is exaggerated" (pp. 4-5).
"Research indicates that the proportion of fabricated reports may be higher in the divorce scenario than in other contexts (Faller, 1990; Jones & Seig, 1988). Studies suggest most false reports are made by adults, not children (Jones & McGraw, 1987; Jones & Seig, 1988)" (p. 5).
"Clinical research (Sorenson & Snow, 1991) and experience (Faller, 1988) indicate that for most children, revealing sexual abuse is a process which occurs over time. A typical pattern is one in which children begin with the least overwhelming experience and gradually disclose more and more as their accounts are accepted and believed" (p. 5).
"[In conclusion]... therapists should be aware of the findings from research on children's memory and suggestibility. This research indicates that there are vulnerabilities which should be taken into account during therapy" (p. 6).
Levitan, Alexander A. (1992). The use of hypnosis with cancer patients. Psychiatric Medicine, 10, 119-131
Hypnosis has proven to be extremely valuable in the treatment of cancer patients. Specific applications include: establishing rapport between the patient and members of the medical health team; control of pain with self-regulation of pain perception through the use of glove anesthesia, time distortion, amnesia, transference of pain to a different body part, or dissociation of the painful part form the rest of the body; controlling symptoms, such as, nausea, anticipatory emesis, learned food aversions, etc.; psychotherapy for anxiety, depression, guilt, anger, hostility, frustration, isolation, and a diminished sense of self-esteem; visualization for health improvement; and, dealing with death anxiety and other related issues. Hypnosis has unique advantages for patients including improvement of self-esteem, involvement in self-care, return of locus of control, lack of unpleasant side effects, and continued efficacy despite continued use.
Murrey, Gregory J.; Cross, Herb J.; Whipple, Jim (1992). Hypnotically created pseudomemories: Further investigation into the 'memory distortion or response bias' question. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 101 (1), 75-77.
In order to study whether pseudomemories represent actual memory distortions or are a result of response bias, 60 highly hypnotizable subjects and subjects from the general population were divided into 4 experimental groups and were tested for pseudomemory manifestation after receiving a false suggestion. Of the 4 groups of subjects, 3 were offered a monetary reward as a motivation to distinguish false suggestion from the actual occurrence. Pseudomemory manifestation was found to be significantly higher among subjects not offered a reward than among subjects who were offered such a reward. The implications of these findings are discussed
NOTES: The article contains a review of the literature through 1989. The study tested the hypothesis that when it is important to distinguish fantasy from reality in a hypnosis experiment, subjects can do so--a position presented by Spanos and McLean (1986). They used a verifiable event to test for pseudomemory production, as in research published by McCann and Sheehan (1988). Subjects were 30 high hypnotizable and 30 unselected students.
Subjects were shown a videotape of a mock robbery scene. The next week, Groups A, B, and C heard audiotapes "to enhance memory," but in addition to motivating statements about "trying to remember" certain details, the tapes included misleading information (e.g. "Remember the color of the hat the robber was wearing" when in fact there was no hat on the robber). Subjects in these groups were 'influenced.'
"Both highly hypnotizable subject groups (Groups A and B) listened to the audiotape after being administered a 10-min hypnotic induction procedure (modified from that of Barber, 1969). Subject Group C listened to the audiotape without hypnosis. The control group, Group D, did not listen to the audiotape and was, therefore, classified as 'uninfluenced.'"
A week later subjects responded to multiple-choice and yes-no or true-false questions about the robbery scene. The yes-no question about whether the robber was wearing a hat served as the dependent variable, a measure of pseudomemory. "To motivate subjects to report the truth rather than to follow any perceived expectations of the experimental of social context, we offered subjects in Groups B, C, and D a monetary reward if they achieved the most correct answers on the quiz (according to the videotape). The reward was offered just before administration of the quiz to ensure that no collusion between the subjects could occur. Group A was not offered any such reward" (p. 76).
"The number of subjects in Group A (hypnotized, influenced, no reward) who reported the false information at posttest (12) was significantly greater then that of Group B (hypnotized, influenced, offered reward.... However, the difference in incidence of pseudomemory between Group B and the control group, Group D (not hypnotized, uninfluenced, offered reward), was nonsignificant" (p. 76).
Table 1 Incidence of Pseudomemory Per Group ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- False suggestion Group A Group B Group C Group D
result (n=15) (n=15) (n=15) (n=15) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Accepted 12 6 7 3
Rejected 3 9 8 12 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note. Group A = hypnotized, influenced, not offered reward.
Group B = hypnotized, influenced, offered reward.
Group C = not hypnotized, influenced, offered reward.
Group D = not hypnotized, not influenced, offered reward.
In the Discussion, the authors wrote, "Because the only variable among these groups was the reward, a reasonable conclusion from the findings is that pseudomemories manifested by the subjects were (for the most part) not actual memory distortions. Presumably, the reward provided the subjects in Group B an incentive to 'report the truth' and a disincentive to give biased reports on the basis of the perceived expectations of the social or experimental context. Thus these data suggest that pseudomemory effects or the occurrence of the pseudomemory phenomenon among highly hypnotizable subjects can be minimized by providing a motivation to subjects to give unbiased reports.
"A major implication of these findings is that researchers should control for response bias resulting from perceived social demands or from leading test designs when they conduct pseudomemory research. Of further concern is the fact that a number of researchers contend that hypnotic interrogation of eye-witnesses can greatly facilitate the creation of pseudomemories (Levitt, 1990; Loftus, 1979; Orne, 1979; Putnam, 1979), and therefore hypnosis either should not be allowed in the courtroom or should be strictly controlled. Yet in light of our findings, response bias may be a confound in pseudomemory research, and thus researchers need to be cautious when making inferences to specific situations from data obtained in an experimental setting.
"Despite the existence of a confound of (unmeasured) differences in hypnotizability between the two groups, there was no significant difference between Group B and the control group (Group D). This suggests that if response bias is controlled for, there may not be significant differences in manifestation of pseudomemories between highly hypnotizable subjects and subjects representative of the general population. However, further research is needed in order to address this question" (pp. 76-77).
Perry, Nancy
NOTES
: "'My memory is the thing I forget with.' (a child's definition, cited in Grossberg, 1985, p. 60)" (p. 1).
"Unlike the simpler forms of memory retrieval, free recall is strongly age-related... the recall skills of preschool children develop gradually" (p. 2). "...in some cases, younger children can provide _more_ accurate information than adults (Lindberg, 1991). For example, if an event is particularly salient (as sometimes happens in cases of trauma), recall may be exceptionally good (Brainerd & Ornstein, 1991; Lindberg, 1991)" (p. 13).
"Children have limited ability to use memory strategies. For this reason, children often know more than they can freely recall" (p. 13).
"The use of _rehearsal_ as a memory strategy is almost automatic for adults. ... Ten-year-olds also commonly use rehearsal to aid memory. Young children, however, have not mastered rehearsal (Harris & Liebert, 1991).
"Another memory strategy is imagery, which involves (1) mentally picturing a person, place, or object, or (2) visually associating two or more things that are to be remembered. Children develop imagery much later than other memory strategies. Indeed, some people never learn this memory strategy (Flavell, 1977)" (p. 13).
"... stress alone may not impair memory processes. Indeed, stress can lead to arousal, heightened attention, and improved encoding (Deffenbacher, 1983). However, stress that results from intimidation may lead to either impairment in encoding or problems in recalling or reporting memories" (p. 14).
"Because the effect of suggestion on material that has been well encoded tends not to be significantly different across age groups (Cohen & Harnick, 1980), it may be that younger children's inferior performance on suggestive tasks results from inferior encoding" (p. 15).
1991
Bowers, Kenneth S. (1991). Dissociation in hypnosis and multiple personality disorder. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 39, 155-176.
The first part of this paper examines the concept of dissociation in the context of hypnosis. In particular, the neodissociative and social psychological models of hypnosis are compared. It is argued that the social psychological model, in describing hypnotic enactments as purposeful, does not adequately distinguish between behavior that is enacted "on purpose" and behavior that serves or achieves a purpose. 2 recent dissertations (Hughes, 1988; Miller, 1986) from the University of Waterloo are summarized, each of which supports the neodissociative view that hypnotic behavior can be purposeful (in the sense that the suggested state of affairs is achieved) and nonvolitional (in the sense that the suggested state of affairs is not achieved by high level executive initiative and ongoing effort). The second part of the paper employs a neodissociative view of hypnosis to help understand the current epidemic of multiple personality disorder (MPD). In particular, it is argued that many symptoms of MPD are implicitly suggested effects--particularly prone to occur in persons who have a lifelong tendency to use dissociative type defenses. The present author believes that this account is easier to sustain conceptually and empirically than the current view, which states that a secondary (tertiary, etc.) personality accounts for the striking phenomenological discontinuities experienced by MPD patients.
NOTES 1:
As an example of the fact that behavior that serves a purpose is not always performed on purpose, the author cites not falling out of bed while sleeping, and waking up in response to signals from the bladder to go to the bathroom. Lower levels of control can be dissociated from executive initiative and/or monitoring. "Since the experience of volition is closely tied to executive initiative and effort, suggested behaviors that bypass such initiative and effort are typically experienced as nonvolitional" (p. 157). Dissociated control occurs under waking conditions also, as when one dials a very familiar phone number rather than the one that they intended to dial. In this case, the behavior that is enacted is not what one consciously intended.
As an example of the fact that behavior that serves a purpose is not always performed on purpose, the author cites not falling out of bed while sleeping, and waking up in response to signals from the bladder to go to the bathroom. Lower levels of control can be dissociated from executive initiative and/or monitoring. "Since the experience of volition is closely tied to executive initiative and effort, suggested behaviors that bypass such initiative and effort are typically experienced as nonvolitional" (p. 157). Dissociated control occurs under waking conditions also, as when one dials a very familiar phone number rather than the one that they intended to dial. In this case, the behavior that is enacted is not what one consciously intended.
Miller's dissertation, also published as Miller & Bowers, 1986, is described on p. 158 ff. Without hypnosis, cold pressor pain (cold water immersion) reduced accuracy of performance on a multiple choice vocabulary test 35%. Both hypnotic analgesia and cognitive pain management strategies were equally effective in reducing pain of cold pressor test (and both interventions were more effective for high than for low hypnotizable Ss). However, the cognitive strategy group showed an additional drop of 30% in vocabulary performance from pre- to posttreatment cold water immersion (despite successfully reducing their pain). In the hypnosis condition, lows showed only a slight additional decrease (8%) while highs showed a slight (10%) _increase_ in their vocabulary performance from pre- to posttreatment immersion.
Thus, the effect of hypnosis in pain control "does not depend on S's utilization of high-level cognitive strategies. Rather, hypnotic analgesia seems to involve the dissociated control of pain--that is, control which is relatively free of the need for high- level, executive initiative and effort. ... Because hypnotic analgesia minimizes the degree of executive initiative and ongoing effort required to reduce pain, however, it seems inappropriate to view such reductions as something achieved on purpose" (p. 161).
Hughes' dissertation is described on p. 162 and ff. Instead of performance decrement on a cognitive task like vocabulary testing, she used increased heart rate as an index of cognitive effort. If heart rate increases when Ss successfully use hypnotic imagery, that would confirm the social psychological view that "suggested effects are achieved by this kind of ongoing allocation of high-level cognitive force or work" (p. 162).
Highs and lows were hypnotized and administered three trials of neutral and three trials of fearful imagery in counterbalanced order. Each imagery trial lasted 1 minute, after which Ss rated vividness of imagery, effort required, and amount of fear experienced.
Average imagery vividness was higher in highs than lows, for both neutral and fear imagery. For lows the correlation between heart rate increases and ratings of cognitive effort were .54 (neutral imagery) and .49 (fear imagery). For highs, the correlations were -.05 (neutral) and -.52 (fear). Thus, "for low but not high hypnotizable Ss, we find the predicted positive relationship between a cardiac indicator of cognitive effort and the ratings of cognitive effort involved in producing neutral imagery" (p. 163).
"First, for low hypnotizables engaged in fear imagery, ratings of effort are correlated .66 with ratings of fear. In other words, the more low hypnotizable Ss work to produce a fearful image, the more frightening the image is. Second, for high hypnotizables engaged in fear imagery, the correlation between ratings of fear and effort is minus 68-- indicating that the less effort highs report in producing fear imagery, the more frightened they become. Finally, for high hypnotizables, the correlation between ratings of fear and heart rate increase is .59, indicating that the more fear high hypnotizable Ss experience when engaged in fear imagery, the more their heart rate increases (the comparable figure for low hypnotizables is .16)" (p. 164).
The authors discuss why the pattern of correlations is different for people high and low in measured hypnotizability, and summarize the implications of both Miller's and Hughes' research. Both investigations indicate that, at least for high hypnotizable people, less initiative and effort are required to effect a response to hypnotic suggestion than one would expect. The show how behavior can be both purposeful and nonvolitional (in the sense of not exhibiting conscious intention and strategic efforts). By noting that the sense of nonvolition that accompanies a response to suggestion is an actual alteration in executive control, they provide a model for dissociative psychopathology such as MPD. For although executive control is dissociated, these experiments do not suggest that there is a second executive system or 'personality' that is responsible for the behavior.
Patients diagnosed with MPD have very high measured hypnotizability (Bliss, 1984). In fact, they seem to engage in self hypnosis, withdrawing into a trance or a dissociated state (Bliss, 1984). The authors quote Wilson & Barber (1983) as indicating that highly hypnotized, fantasy-prone normal individuals may become so absorbed in a character being imagined that they lose awareness of their own identity.
The authors offer a neodissociative account of MPD: "People prone to MPD are very high in hypnotic ability and are, therefore, vulnerable to the suggestive impact of ideas, imaginings, and fantasies; what is more, they are high in hypnotic ability because they have learned to use dissociative defenses as a way of dealing with inescapable threat-- such as physical and sexual abuse (Kluft, 1987). ... Fantasied alternatives to reality (including a fantasied alter ego ... ) can become increasingly complex and differentiated. Gradually, these fantasied alternatives begin to activate subsystems of control more or less directly--that is, with minimal involvement of executive level initiative and control. Such 'dissociated control' of behavior does not necessarily eliminate consciousness of it, though one's actions are apt to be experienced as increasingly ego-alien. If and when the activating fantasies and resulting behaviors become sufficiently threatening, however, they can also be repressed into an unconscious (i.e., amnesic) status, thus further separating high-level executive and monitoring functions from the dissociated, ego-alien aspects of oneself. The fully realized result of this process is an individual who is subject to profound discontinuities in his or her sense of self. ... The experience of behaving in an outwardly uncharacteristic manner requires only that subsystems of control are more or less directly activated by ideas and fantasies in a manner that effectively bypasses executive initiative and control" (pp. 168-169).
923, Bowers, 1992 NOTES: Tart allegedly taught ESP skills based on reinforcement, using a machine that projected display and gave feedback immediately, so the subjects could learn to anticipate the picture better. But the picture presented next was time-linked to the S's response (so S could learn it).
1987 Behavioral and Brain Sciences review, with 2 target articles, makes one doubt strength of findings. ESP research doesn't distinguish between description of an observation and it's proposed cause.
MPD shares with ESP a tendency to predispose toward a certain explanation. Feeling like one has a separate personality leads to finding evidence for one. But an MPD account is wrong-headed because the diagnosis misconstrues a notion of personality, which is a developmental concept (a pattern of thought, feeling, and behavior). Mischel's (1968) account of human functioning competed with trait theory, so "personality" concept became extraneous.
Defining personality in terms of one's experiences or beliefs about oneself has lead to further problems, encouraged by the descriptive approach of DSM III (which depends on patient reports). Drew Weston distinguished between the self and self representation. One can't argue that a computer programmed to describe itself is the same as it's descriptions.
Personality can't be reduced to person's beliefs about themselves. A secondary personality cannot be reduced to bizarre experiences a person believes are due to a second personality. Clinicians do not accept as valid the beliefs of a paranoid schizophrenic; or of an anxious neurotic. With multiple personality disorder (MPD) the patient becomes the expert and the clinician the student.
William Smith's 1986 SCEH paper: case study of patient who was convinced her problems were due to unresolved problems from a previous life. He didn't challenge her system but still worked with her successfully, communicating respect without validating her belief.
Advocates of MPDs think the observation that it is associated with high hypnotizability indicates great dissociation; critics think the association indicates great suggestibility. There is a historical parallel: Mesmer probably didn't suggest seizure-like episodes, but implicit suggestions for seizures were probably partially responsible. Mistaken attribution permitted Mesmer to see this as validation of his theory of animal magnetism.
Clinicians are not the only ones to "suggest" MPD syndrome. High profile cases are in the media. We should also remember Orne's 1959 research showing that students who received false information a week earlier in lecture on hypnosis showed the behavior when they were hypnotized.
Janet's disaggregation (dissociation) theory said hysterics and hypnotized people responded to ideas dissociated from the main stream of consciousness. So his contemporaries thought that spontaneous amnesia was a defining feature of hypnosis; yet it is not thought to be so in our era. The idea may have circulated in Janet's time, by popular culture.
MPDs are always highly suggestible so can respond to circulating accounts in the media, and every account that reaches the media can influence these people.
We could abandon the diagnosis of MPD in favor of Spiegel's "disorder of self integration." It is less provocative, does not imply any clinical benefit in the benefits of seeking out more personalities. This might reduce the incidence of this disorder, or likelihood that a suggestible person would develop the disorder iatrogenically.
1991
Davidson, T. M.; Bowers, K. S. (1991). Selective hypnotic amnesia: Is it a successful attempt to forget or an unsuccessful attempt to remember. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100, 133-143
Subjects in two experiments learned a 16-item, 4-category word list and were then administered hypnotic suggestions to be amnesic for all the words in one of the categories. Even when selective amnesia was completely successful, subjects in both experiments revealed a high level of recall for words not targeted for amnesia; moreover, these words were recalled in a highly organized, category-by-category fashion. Evidently, attention to relevant retrieval (i.e., organizational) cues does not oblige recall of words targeted for amnesia. Forgetting in the presence of such powerful mnemonic cues seems to characterize hypnotic amnesia and some notes.
NOTES
NOTES
The authors argue that mnemonic lapses of this kind represent a failed attempt to remember rather than a successful attempt to forget.pontaneous forms of forgetting as well.
Spiegel, David; Cardena, Etzel (1991). Disintegrated experience: The dissociative disorders revisited. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100 (3), 366-378.
Presents proposed changes to the dissociative disorders section of the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) and reviews the concept of pathological and nonpathological dissociation, including empirical findings on the relations between trauma and dissociative phenomenology and between dissociation and hypnosis. The most important proposals include the creation of 2 new diagnostic entities, brief reactive dissociative disorder and transient dissociative disturbance, and the readoption of the criterion of amnesia for a multiple personality disorder diagnosis. Further work on dissociative processes will provide an important link between clinical and experimental approaches to human cognition, emotion, and personality.
1990
Gwynn, Maxwell I.; Quigley, Celia; Perlini, Arthur; Glatt, Richard; Spanos, Nicholas P. (1990, August). Eyewitness testimony: Effects of hypnotic interrogation and witness preparation. [Paper] Presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Boston
NOTES 1:
There is notable absence of empirical research on the effects of witness preparation on subsequent testimony. The present study investigates the separate and combined effects of hypnotic recall procedures and witness preparation on subjects' confidence in, and maintenance during cross-examination, of mug-shot identifications.
There is notable absence of empirical research on the effects of witness preparation on subsequent testimony. The present study investigates the separate and combined effects of hypnotic recall procedures and witness preparation on subjects' confidence in, and maintenance during cross-examination, of mug-shot identifications.
Session 1: Subjects viewed a 65 second videotape of a mock crime involving a shooting. The offender in this video was a male approximately 40-50 years old, whose face was partially obscured by the brim of a baseball cap.
Subjects were then taken individually to another room, where a second experimenter presented them with a series of five photographic mug shots. Half of the series contained the mug shot; the other did not. Subjects indicate if any portrayed the offender and then to rate their confidence in their identification.
Subjects for Session 2 were randomly assigned to one of two conditions:
Hypnotic condition ... followed by "reliving" instructions modeled after Reiser's procedures used in training police detectives.
Nonhypnotic condition ... Each subject was then presented with the mug shot lineup and rated their confidence as in Session 1 with the same second experimenter.
Subjects who in Session 2 identified any mug shot as portraying the offender returned about one week after for a mock courtroom appearance. Subjects were randomly assigned to either a "prepared" condition, or a "nonprepared" condition, with the restriction of equal numbers of offender-present vs. offender-absent lineups and hypnotic vs. nonhypnotic subjects in each condition ... The subject-witness was questioned by the third same experimenter under direct examination and then cross-examined by a fourth experimenter in the role of defense attorney.
Subjects in the prepared condition were given pointers concerning their courtroom appearance. These pointers included counseling to answer all of the questions fully, to speak in complete sentences, and to present themselves confidently.
The videotapes of the subjects' testimonies were then shown to independent blind raters who rated the degree of confidence displayed by the subject-witness at two points, first after direct examination, and again after cross-examination.
To summarize the results: 1) As in a number of previous studies, eyewitness confidence was unrelated to mug shot identification accuracy. 2) The use of hypnotic techniques as practiced by many police investigators did not lead to an increase in the frequency or accuracy with which subjects identified a mug shot as portraying a previously viewed offender. 3) Again consistent with previous research, the use of hypnosis did lead to an increase in eyewitness confidence, without a corresponding increase in accuracy, and this confidence increase was correlated with pretested levels of hypnotic susceptibility. 4) Contrary to the speculation of researchers such as Orne, Laurence & Perry, hypnotic procedures _did not_ lead to the creation of unshakable witnesses who were impervious to cross-examination. And, 5) The usual practice of pre-trial preparation of witnesses _did_ lead to a resistance of witnesses to be broken down under cross-examination.
In conclusion, the key factor found to affect eyewitness confidence and mug shot identification was _not_ the use of hypnotic memory enhancement techniques, but rather the usual practice of pre-trial witness preparation.
Spiegel, David; Cardena, Etzel (1990, October). New uses of hypnosis in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (Supplement), 51, 39-43.
Weekes, John R.; Lynn, Steven Jay (1990). Hypnotic suggestion type, and subjective experience - the order-effects hypothesis revisited: A brief communication. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 38, 95-100.
In a replication and extension of Field, Evans, and Orne's (1965) research, no support was found for the hypothesis that suggestion order is related to hypnotic responding. Confirming earlier findings, subjects were no more responsive to suggestions ordered from easy-to-difficult than they were to suggestions ordered from difficult-to- easy. Measures of subjective involvement in suggestions, involuntariness, and archaic involvement with the hypnotist were no more sensitive to order effects, nor were order effects more apparent with subjects who received direct versus indirect suggestions. Confirming earlier research, direct suggestions did facilitate suggestion-related involuntariness and response to the hypnotic amnesia item after cancellation, whereas indirect suggestions enhanced fears of negative appraisal by the hypnotist. Thus, authoritative suggestions enhance responding to a cognitive-delusional item relative to more permissive suggestions. Finally, female subjects were more involved in suggestions than were males, particularly in response to more difficult tests items.
Ganaway, George K. (1989). Historical versus narrative truth: Clarifying the role of exogenous trauma in the etiology of MPD and its variants. Dissociation, 2, 205-220.
The author notes a current trend toward viewing multiple personality disorder (MPD) and its variants as a form of chronic post-traumatic stress disorder based solely on exogenous childhood trauma, and cautions against prematurely reductionistic hypotheses. He focuses on Kluft's Third Etiological Factor, which includes the various developmental, biological, interpersonal, sociocultural, and psychodynamic shaping influences and substrates that determine the form taken by the dissociative defense. He hypothesizes a credibility continuum of childhood and contemporary memories arising primarily from exogenous trauma at one end, and endogenous trauma (stemming from intrapsychic adaptational needs) at the other. The author offers alternative multidetermined explanations for certain unverified trauma memories that currently are being accepted and validated as factual experiences by many therapists. He describes some potentially deleterious effects of validating unverified trauma memories during psychotherapy, and recommends that the MPD patients' need for unconditional credibility be responded to in the same manner as other transference-generated productions.
1989-1990
Kunzendorf, Robert G. (1989-90). Posthypnotic amnesia: Dissociation of self-concept or self-consciousness?. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 9, 321-334.
Two studies of posthypnotic amnesia tested predictions derived from the 'source' monitoring theory of self-consciousness. Experiment 1 tested the prediction that posthypnotic source amnesia is irreversible, because hypnosis attenuates self- consciousness of whether one's sensations have an imaginal source or a perceptual source. In this initial study, recall amnesia was reversed by posthypnotic cueing with a prearranged signal, but source amnesia was not reversed by such cueing. Experiment 2 examined whether the cued reversal of recall amnesia is attributable, in part, to the hypnotic attenuation of self-conscious 'source monitoring' and, in part, to the reversal of recall criteria: from a criterion rejecting 'seemingly imaginary' or 'sourceless' memories, to a criterion accepting 'sourceless but familiar' memories. In this latter study, posthypnotic recall amnesia was breached when subjects were instructed to trust their seemingly imaginary memories, but not when they were instructed to try harder to remember [emphasis removed from quoted text].
1989
Pillemer, D. B.; White, S. H. (1989). Childhood events recalled by children and adults. In Reese, H. W. (Ed.), Advances in child development and behavior. New York
NOTES 1:
Authors discuss a dual memory theory. The first memory system is prominent in early childhood, and is a system in which are organized and evoked by persons, locations, and emotions. Such memories are not easily "transportable" outside the original experience. These memories are accessed through images of face and place, actions, or feelings. The second memory system begins to develop in early childhood, is verbally mediated, and stores experiences in narrative form. Such memories are accessible through verbal interaction, and can be reviewed and shared with others verbally. For a small child, to access all of a memory one would need to tap into both memory systems. The authors suggest that the first memory system continues to be available throughout one's life, especially when strong emotion was associated so that verbal cues are not attached. [This has implications for retrieval of "lost" memories using imagery-based approaches like hypnosis.]
Authors discuss a dual memory theory. The first memory system is prominent in early childhood, and is a system in which are organized and evoked by persons, locations, and emotions. Such memories are not easily "transportable" outside the original experience. These memories are accessed through images of face and place, actions, or feelings. The second memory system begins to develop in early childhood, is verbally mediated, and stores experiences in narrative form. Such memories are accessible through verbal interaction, and can be reviewed and shared with others verbally. For a small child, to access all of a memory one would need to tap into both memory systems. The authors suggest that the first memory system continues to be available throughout one's life, especially when strong emotion was associated so that verbal cues are not attached. [This has implications for retrieval of "lost" memories using imagery-based approaches like hypnosis.]
Schuyler, Bradley A.; Coe, William C. (1989). More on volitional experiences and breaching posthypnotic amnesia. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 37, 320-331.
: Highly responsive hypnotic subjects, who were classified as having control over remembering (voluntaries) or not having control over remembering (involuntaries) during posthypnotic amnesia, were compared with each other on four physiological measures (heart rate, electrodermal response, respiration rate, muscle tension) during posthypnotic recall. Two contextual conditions were employed: One was meant to create pressure to breach posthypnotic amnesia (lie detector instructions); the other, a relax condition, served as a control. The recall data confirmed earlier findings of Howard and Coe and showed that voluntary subjects under the lie detector condition recalled more than the other three samples that did not differ from each other. However, using another measure of voluntariness showed that both voluntary and involuntary subjects breached under lie detector conditions. Electrodermal response supported the subjects' reports of control in this case. Physiological measures were otherwise insignificant. The results are discussed as they relate to (a) studies attempting to breach posthypnotic amnesia, (b) the voluntary/involuntary classification of subjects, and (c) theories of hypnosis.
NOTES 1:
The authors suggest that subjects observe themselves not remembering (i.e. not reporting memories) and conclude that they therefore could not remember. Such subjects, they say, are deceiving themselves in so far as they could remember if they were to direct their attention to salient cues.
The authors suggest that subjects observe themselves not remembering (i.e. not reporting memories) and conclude that they therefore could not remember. Such subjects, they say, are deceiving themselves in so far as they could remember if they were to direct their attention to salient cues.
Spanos, Nicholas P.; Lush, Nancy I.; Gwynn, Maxwell I. (1989). Cognitive skill-training enhancement of hypnotizability: Generalization effects and trance logic responding. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56 (5), 795-804.
Compared low-hypnotizable subjects who simulated hypnosis, underwent cognitive skill training, or served as no- treatment controls to subjects who scored as high hypnotizables without training (natural highs) on response to analgesia, age-regression, visual hallucination, selective amnesia, and posthypnotic suggestions. Subjects who attained high hypnotizability following skill training (created highs) did not differ from natural highs on any response index. Natural and created highs scored lower than simulators but higher than controls on the behavioral and subjective aspects of test suggestions. Simulators, however, were significantly less likely than natural highs or skill- trained subjects to exhibit duality responding or incongruous writing during age regression or transparent hallucinating. Results suggest that the hypnotic responses of natural and created highs are mediated by the same cognitive variables and that enhancements in hypnotizability produced by skill training cannot b
Van Denberg, Eric J.; Kurtz, Richard M. (1989). Changes in body attitude as a function of posthypnotic suggestions. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 37, 15-30. e adequately explained in terms of compliance.
Hypothesized that highly hypnotizable subjects who remained amnesic for posthypnotic suggestions to improve body attitude would show greater changes than subjects who were not amnesic. Subjects given simulating instructions were used as a comparison group to assess experimental demands. 48 females were screened with the Harvard and assigned to one of 4 conditions: (a) high hypnotizable with amnesia suggestions, (b) high hypnotizable without suggested amnesia, (c) low hypnotizable simulator with amnesia, and (d) low hypnotizable simulator without suggested amnesia. A fifth group was formed of those high hypnotizable subjects who remembered the suggestion despite instructions to the contrary. The Body Attitude Scale (Kurtz, 1966) was administered prior to and 3 days after the experimental suggestions. Results generally demonstrated that high hypnotizable amnesic subjects manifested the greatest attitudinal and phenomenological changes as a result of the posthypnotic suggestion, although conclusions were tempered by performance of simulating subjects. The implications for hypnosis research and clinical practice are discussed.
NOTES 1:
"The hypothesis that hypnotized subjects would report greater positive changes in affect, self-esteem, and social functioning than simulators was tested using a brief structured questionnaire. An analysis of Subjects responses to the questionnaire while with the 'blind' research assistant (simulators in role) revealed number significant differences between groups (N = 48) on six of the seven questions. ... An analysis of Subjects' responses to the questionnaire while being debriefed by the primary investigator (simulators out of role) revealed significant differences among groups (N = 48) on three of the seven questions. ... High hypnotizable subjects with maintained amnesia demonstrated a strong tendency to be the most responsive of all groups of subjects on the first and second assessment. In contrast, the high hypnotizable Ss for whom amnesia 'broke down' reported the fewest phenomenological changes of any of the five groups during the first assessment, and comparatively few during the second assessment. Also of note is that once out of their role, simulators in both conditions dramatically reduced their reporting of positive change" (pp. 23-24).
"The hypothesis that hypnotized subjects would report greater positive changes in affect, self-esteem, and social functioning than simulators was tested using a brief structured questionnaire. An analysis of Subjects responses to the questionnaire while with the 'blind' research assistant (simulators in role) revealed number significant differences between groups (N = 48) on six of the seven questions. ... An analysis of Subjects' responses to the questionnaire while being debriefed by the primary investigator (simulators out of role) revealed significant differences among groups (N = 48) on three of the seven questions. ... High hypnotizable subjects with maintained amnesia demonstrated a strong tendency to be the most responsive of all groups of subjects on the first and second assessment. In contrast, the high hypnotizable Ss for whom amnesia 'broke down' reported the fewest phenomenological changes of any of the five groups during the first assessment, and comparatively few during the second assessment. Also of note is that once out of their role, simulators in both conditions dramatically reduced their reporting of positive change" (pp. 23-24).
"Moreover, a closer examination of the data demonstrated that phenomenological and behavioral differences in the groups did appear at several points during the experiment. For example, the 10 high hypnotizable subjects told to explicitly remember the suggestion did so, while 3 of the 10 simulators in this condition claimed to have forgotten it. On debriefing, these Subjects reported they did this because they believed 'really hypnotized subjects wouldn't be able to remember anything, even if they were told they could.' Further, no simulator in the amnesia condition reported they could recall the suggestion, in contrast to the high hypnotizable subjects, 44% of whom said they did remember it. With regard to phenomenological differences, simulators stated during debriefing with the primary investigator that they intentionally faked changes on BAS, and that they experienced no true effects from the suggestion for positive body attitude change. In contrast, high hypnotizability amnesic subjects reported global, pervasive changes in their mood and self-esteem that went beyond specific alterations in attitudes toward their appearance. By comparison, high hypnotizable subjects told to remember the suggestion reported greatly increased self-absorption and acute awareness of the suggestion, 'sort of like a broken record in my head'" (pp. 25-26).
"As shown by the present study, amnesia maintenance can be quite problematic. Of 18 high hypnotizable subjects for whom amnesia was suggested, only 10 remained fully amnesic for the suggestion after 3 days. In addition, those 8 subjects for whom amnesia 'broke down' showed minimal shifts on BAS, or in reports of phenomenological changes. Such frequent amnesia failure has been reported by other researchers, although the effectiveness of the suggestion is not always so compromised" (p. 26).
Van der Kolk, Bessel A.; Van der Hart, O. (1989). Pierre Janet and the breakdown of adaptation in psychological trauma. American Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 1530-1540.
Reviews Janet's investigations into mental processes that transform traumatic experiences into psychopathology. He was the first to systematically study dissociation as the crucial psychological process with which the organism reacts to overwhelming experiences and show that traumatic memories may be expressed as sensory perceptions, affect states, and behavioral reenactments. Janet provided a broad framework that unifies into a larger perspective the various approaches to psychological functioning which have developed along independent lines in this century. Today his integrated approach may help clarify the interrelationships among such diverse topics as memory processes, state-dependent learning, dissociative reactions, and posttraumatic psychopathology.
1988
Nadon, Robert; D'Eon, Joyce; McConkey, Kevin M.; Laurence, Jean-Roch; Perry, Campbell
The present study ought to explore potential response differences to a suggestion for posthypnotic amnesia between those high hypnotizable Ss who do and those who do not manifest the hidden observer effect. In line with the hypothesis that Ss who responded to the hidden observer suggestion are more highly engaged in cognitive monitoring of their experience and behavior (Nogrady, McConkey, Laurence, & Perry, 1983), it was predicted that these Ss would recall more Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C (Weitzenhoffer & Hilgard, 1962) hypnotic items, and in greater detail, following the reversal of amnesia than would their no-hidden observer counterparts. In this regard, both the quantity and the quality of posthypnotic recall was examined in 15 high, 11 high-medium, and 11 low hypnotizable Ss. Data on posthypnotic recall from low and high-medium hypnotizable Ss revealed the comparability of the present sample to samples of other studies that have investigated posthypnotic recall using standardized hypnotizability scales. Contrary to prediction, hidden observer Ss recalled significantly fewer hypnotic items and in less detail. Similar results were found when high hypnotizable Ss were dichotomized with respect to the presence or absence of duality in age regression (Perry & Walsh, 1978). Results are discussed in terms of implications for future research
NOTES 1:
Spanos and colleagues attribute amnesia to directing attention away from the target material; others "emphasize individual differences and subjective experiences over and above Ss' interpretations of, and responses to contextual demands" (p. 20).
Spanos and colleagues attribute amnesia to directing attention away from the target material; others "emphasize individual differences and subjective experiences over and above Ss' interpretations of, and responses to contextual demands" (p. 20).
Evans & Kihlstrom (1973) pose a 'disrupted retrieval' hypothesis, stating that it is a result of retrieval functions rather than acquisition or storage processes (because so easily reversed), and there is considerable support for this. A number of studies show that partially amnesic Ss have disorganized temporal sequencing in their recall of hypnotic events (and the disorganization of recall appears to be related to the suggestion for posthypnotic amnesia and not to hypnosis per se, as it isn't observed in Ss who haven't received a suggestion for post hypnotic amnesia).
Two studies of videotape playback support the disrupted retrieval hypothesis and the hypothesis that what high hypnotizable Ss' recall is qualitatively different from what other Ss recall (McConkey & Sheehan, 1981; McConkey, Sheehan, & Cross, 1980). 1/3 of the amnesic Ss in both studies "acknowledged their hypnotic behavior when watching the playback, while spontaneously reporting that they were unable to comment on the corresponding subjective experiences" (p. 21). None of the simulators made this behavior/experience distinction, and McConkey & Sheehan (1981) suggested that different memory retrieval mechanisms may exist for behavior vs. experience.
Hilgard (1973, 1977, 1979) has suggested that mental functioning may be regulated by a hierarchy of cognitive control systems rather than by a single mental apparatus such as consciousness--the neo-dissociation theory. He uses the metaphor of a hidden observer to describe how Ss with hypnotic analgesia may be 'aware' of pain outside of their immediate conscious awareness. He suggests that the hypnotic analgesia process is like that of posthypnotic amnesia, since the information is 'temporarily unavailable' for retrieval in both cases.
In the present study the authors developed a scoring system to assess quality of recall in responses to post hypnotic amnesia suggestion. They scored details (bits) recalled, as well as the conventional number of test items recalled.
Ss were screened by Harvard and modified SHSS:C, to yield 15 high hypnotizable Ss (9-12), 11 high-medium Ss (8-10), 11 low Ss (1-3). Amnesia data were gathered from the SHSS:C sessions. The hidden observer effect was assessed in a subsequent session. Raters classified the 15 highs as containing 6 with hidden observer experience and 9 with duality of experience in age regression.
The hidden observer instructions were different from Hilgard; they stated that "just as there are bodily processes such as heart rate, blood pressure, and temperature control that are not fully represented in consciousness, there also may be a hidden part of the person of which the hypnotized person is unaware ... [and] that this part may be registering the pain (administered by a Take-Me-Along electrical stimulator) that is not accessible to the hypnotized part during analgesia" (p. 25). Contrary to expectations, "the hidden observer Ss gave evidence of experiencing greater residual amnesia (Kihlstrom & Evans, 1977) than their no-hidden observer counterparts" (p. 30).
The authors note in their discussion that this research provides further evidence of the heterogeneity of response pattern of highly hypnotizable people, in respect to passing very difficult test items, and they provide a review of that literature. They remark on the need to investigate cognitive style differences of Highs outside the hypnosis context, just as cognitive style differences have been studied comparing Highs to Lows. "Differences among Ss of varying hypnotic abilities have been found on measures of 'absorption' (Tellegen & Atkinson, 1974); 'imaginative involvement' (J. R. Hilgard, 1970, 1979); 'fantasy proneness' (Wilson & Barber, 1982); imagery abilities (Perry, 1973; Sutcliffe, Perry, & Sheehan, 1970); preference for an imagic cognitive style (Isaacs, 1982; Nadon, 1984, 1985); and sleep and dreaming patterns (Belicki & Bowers, 1982; Evans, 1977; Gibson, 1985; Nadon, 1985). An extension of this type of work to the study of high hypnotizable Ss should lead to heuristic findings concerning the nature of hypnosis and the different ways that high hypnotizable Ss experience the suggested subjective alterations in perception, memory, and mood (Orne, 1980) that are associated with high hypnotic responsiveness" (p. 31). For example, perhaps the no-hidden observer Ss prefer an 'absorption' style and the hidden observer Ss prefer a 'dissociative' style as different pathways into hypnosis.
The results of this study combined with a study by Laurence, Nadon, Nogrady, & Perry ("Duality, dissociation, and memory creation in highly hypnotizable subjects," published in International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 1986, 34, 295- 310) "may point to a complex relationship among types of suggestion (e.g., hidden observer, pseudo-memory, & amnesia), and indices of specific cognitive style (e.g., duality in age regression)" (p. 32). However, measurement error cannot be ruled out.
"As with memory processes within hypnotic contexts, individual differences in hypnosis need to be explained within a broader framework. Hypnotic responses do not occur in isolation of individuals' abilities, beliefs, preferred thinking styles, and past experiences. As with the study of cognitive style differences among individuals differing in hypnotizability, the study of daily life experiences among high hypnotizable Ss who do and those who do not give evidence of dissociative type phenomena in hypnosis may shed further light on the mechanisms implicated in hypnotic responding" (p. 33).
1988
Spanos, Nicholas P.; Cross, Wendi P.; Menary, Evelyn; Smith, Janet (1988). Long term effects of cognitive-skill training for the enhancement of hypnotic susceptibility. British Journal of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis, 5 (2), 73-78.
Twelve initially low susceptible subjects, who scored in the medium or high susceptibility range on the Carleton University Responsiveness to Suggestion Scale (CURSS) following skill training, were posttested 9 to 30 months later with a group version of the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C. Skill trained subjects scored significantly higher on behavioral and subjective dimensions of the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C than low susceptible untrained control subjects who were posttested after an equivalent interval. Furthermore, the posttraining CURSS scores of the skill trained subjects were matched to those of subjects who received the same CURSS scores without training. Matched subjects were posttested on the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C after only a brief delay. Skill trained and matched subjects failed to differ significantly on Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C susceptibility dimensions, but skill trained subjects showed higher levels of suggested amnesia than matched subjects. These findings support the idea that hypnotic susceptibility is modifiable and that training induced gains in susceptibility can be enduring
Spanos, Nicholas P.; Gwynn, Maxwell I.; Della Malva, C. Lori; Bertrand Lorne D. (1988). Social psychological factors in the genesis of posthypnotic source amnesia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 97 (3), 322-329.
Three experiments assessed the role of social psychological variables in source amnesia. Experiment 1 found that low-hypnotizable subjects instructed to simulate partial amnesia were more likely to exhibit source amnesia than high-hypnotizable hypnotic or task-motivated subjects. Experiment 2 found equivalent rates of source amnesia in low-hypnotizable simulators and high-hypnotizable hypnotic subjects. In addition, the findings of Experiment 2 failed to support the idea that the instructions for partial amnesia given to simulators cued for the occurrence of source of amnesia as well as for the occurrence of partial amnesia. In Experiment 3, preliminary instructions that legitimated source amnesia as a role-appropriate response produced significantly more posthypnotic source amnesia than did neutral or no instructions. Together, the findings of the 3 experiments support the relation of source amnesia to experimental demands and subjects' expectations.
1987
Hilgard, Ernest R. (1987). Research advances in hypnosis: Issues and methods. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 35, 248-264.
There are substantial areas of agreement upon the classical phenomena of hypnosis, illustrated by what we now have learned about hypnotic talent, amnesia, hallucinations, analgesia, and dissociative processes. While genuine advances in knowledge about hypnosis have been made in recent decades, differing orienting attitudes have kept some controversy alive, particularly in the interpretation of empirical findings. Differences of interpretation of the phenomenal and behavioral facts are to be expected in the present stage of developmental, cognitive, and social psychology.
NOTES 1:
The author writes of the "domain of hypnosis" as within the larger domain of social psychology (because it is usually interpersonal); cognitive psychology (because of alterations in perception, imagination, memory, and thought); developmental and personality psychology (because of individual differences); and physiological psychology (because of neurophysiological aspects).
The author writes of the "domain of hypnosis" as within the larger domain of social psychology (because it is usually interpersonal); cognitive psychology (because of alterations in perception, imagination, memory, and thought); developmental and personality psychology (because of individual differences); and physiological psychology (because of neurophysiological aspects).
In terms of what we know about hypnotic talent, he notes that high hypnotizability is not generally associated with psychopathology; that it may however be associated with a personality measure called absorption; and that there may be some inherited ability (Morgan, 1973). In the author's view, hypnosis is no longer considered simply a response to suggestion, since imagination and/or fantasy are very important.
In reviewing evidence of posthypnotic amnesia the author writes, "Subtleties in language require making careful distinctions among concepts such as compliance, suggestion, compulsivity, belief, self-deception, automaticity, the voluntary, the involuntary, and a happening. If these distinctions are glossed over, the choice of words (e.g., substituting compliance for response to suggestion) may give the impression that a finding departs more widely from conventional views than it does. We, too, have found that Ss used varied strategies or skills during amnesia, but this need not deny augmentation by suggestion.
"It takes genuinely high Ss to illustrate truly high posthypnotic amnesia... Many of the truly high hypnotizable individuals cannot break amnesia, no matter how hard they try" (p. 253).
Regarding the evidence for hypnotic hallucinations and trance logic, the author suggests that trance logic is not a clear concept because the Subject is capable of good logic while tolerating some inconsistencies. "It is ordinary logic to assume that if your hallucination is your own construction, it is you who can influence it by your own wishes. In the rare cases of transparent or diaphanous hallucinations there is still an 'out there' quality. People who report that they see wispy ghosts also see them as 'out there,' so that they qualify as hallucinations. The distinction appears to be one of perception and perception-like experiences within hypnosis rather than of logic" (p. 256).
In reviewing the evidence for hypnotic analgesia, the author acknowledges that pain relief is available with other kinds of interventions, or by using other kinds of psychological processes, but that does not diminish the contribution of hypnosis (which has a long and impressive clinical history). Following laboratory studies, it is noted that "the amount of alleviation of pain through hypnosis is positively correlated with the hypnotizability of the candidate for pain reduction. This result is not universally accepted, because some clinicians are convinced that those unsuccessful in hypnotic pain reduction are resisting hypnosis" (p. 256-257). In the present paper he acknowledges but does not review physiological literature on hypnoanalgesia.
Regarding the concept of dissociation, the author indicates that he considers it a more useful concept than the concept of trance or hypnotic state "when a person is only slightly or moderately involved in hypnosis ... . The advantage is that dissociations, as compared with altered states, can be described according to limited or more pervasive changes in the cognitive or motor systems that are being activated or distorted through suggestion in the context of hypnosis. Perhaps when all-inclusive enough, such changes can justify the use of the term trance or altered state, but I believe that these terms should be used, if at all, only for those for whom the immersion in the hypnotic experience is demonstrably pervasive" (pp. 258-259).
The author goes on to describe his initial discovery of the 'hidden observer' in an experimental context, and to relate the 'hidden observer' to others' earlier observations of a secondary report of an experience previously concealed from S's consciousness (Binet, 1889-1890/1896; Estabrooks, 1957; James, 1899; Kaplan, 1960). "The issues are still being worked on, but as in the case of trance logic the heart of the problem is not whether to speak of a hidden observer, but to recognize that there may be cognitive distortions in hypnosis even while some more realistic information is being processed in parallel, so that everything is not reportable by S" (p. 260).
Radtke, H. Lorraine; Thompson, Valerie A.; Egger, Lori A. (1987). Use of retrieval cues in breaching
hypnotic amnesia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 96 (4), 335-340.
We conducted this study to determine whether hypnotically amnesic subjects would breach amnesia when forced to attend to powerful retrieval cues. Following a standard hypnotic induction procedure, 113 subjects attempted to recall a 48- item word list. The list consisted of instances of taxonomic categories presented in blocked format and was presented only once. A forced-recall procedure required subjects to recall 48 items even if that involved guessing. Next, 85 subjects were administered an amnesia suggestion and recalled the list a second time. The remaining 28 subjects served as controls and recalled the list a second time without the intervening suggestion. On Trial 3, the breaching trial, subjects were given the 12 category names and were required to recall 4 items under each. Finally, the suggestion was canceled for subjects in the suggestion condition, and all subjects completed a final cued recall. Subjects in the suggestion condition who showed amnesia on the second trial breached completely on Trial 3. We argue that the task demands prevented them from using the cognitive strategies that, under other circumstances, maintain amnesia. Limitations of the present study and suggestions for further research are discussed.
Silva, Christopher E.; Kirsch, Irving
Prior to hypnotic induction, subjects selected for high hypnotizability and ability to experience hypnotic amnesia were read one of two expectancy manipulations designed to convince them that deepening of hypnosis either would or would not allow them to breach amnesia. After memorizing a list of six words, subjects heard a hypnotic induction, an amnesia suggestion, a challenge to remember, a trance-deepening procedure, and a second challenge to remember. On the first challenge, subjects in both conditions demonstrated considerable and equivalent degrees of amnesia. Following the trance- deepening procedure, subjects in the amnesia-expectancy condition displayed even more amnesia, whereas 80% of the Ss in the memory-expectancy condition completely recovered their memory of the word list. The data demonstrates that for most subjects in whom hypnotic amnesia can be elicited, it can be completely breached by manipulating Ss' expectancies.
Spanos, Nicholas P.; McLean, Joanne; Bertrand, Lorne D. (1987). Serial organization during hypnotic amnesia under two conditions of item presentation. Journal of Research in Personality, 21, 361-374.
Hypnotic and nonhypnotic subjects learned a 16 item list of unrelated words using either a standard presentation order (all items presented in the same order on all trials) or an incremental order (on Trial 1 only the first item was presented, on Trial 2 the first item followed by the second, etc.). Following criterion learning, the hypnotic subjects were administered an amnesia suggestion and challenged to recall, while nonhypnotic subjects engaged in a distraction task while attempting to recall. Hypnotic and nonhypnotic subjects who exhibited reduced recall (i.e., nonrecallers) showed equivalent decrements in seriation on the amnesia/distraction trial. Incremental presentation produced initial levels of seriation higher than those of standard presentation. Among nonrecallers, the incremental presentation was associated with a substantially larger reduction in seriation than was the standard procedure. Theoretical implications are discussed.
Spanos, Nicholas P.; de Groh, Margaret; de Groot Hans (1987). Skill training for enhancing hypnotic susceptibility and word list amnesia. British Journal of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis, 4 (1), 15-23.
Subjects who pretested as low on hypnotic susceptibility received either cognitive skills training aimed at inculcating positive attitudes and interpretations concerning hypnotic responding, or no treatment. Trained subjects scored significantly and substantially higher on subjective and behavioral dimensions of susceptibility than controls. A second posttest assessed amnesia for a previously learned word list. Trained subjects showed more word list amnesia than either no treatment controls or subjects who had been matched to the trained subjects in terms of posttest susceptibility. Theoretical implications for theories of hypnotic susceptibility are discussed
1986
American Medical Association Council on Scientific Affairs (1986). Scientific status of refreshing recollection by the use of hypnosis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 34, 1-12.
The Council finds that recollections obtained during hypnosis can involve confabulations and pseudomemories and not only fail to be more accurate, but actually appear to be less reliable than nonhypnotic recall. The use of hypnosis with witnesses and victims may have serious consequences for the legal process when testimony is based on material that is elicited from a witness who has been hypnotized for the purposes of refreshing recollection.
NOTES 1:
The Council finds that recollections obtained during hypnosis can involve confabulations and pseudomemories and not only fail to be more accurate, but actually appear to be less reliable than nonhypnotic recall. The use of hypnosis with witnesses and victims may have serious consequences for the legal process when testimony is based on material that is elicited from a witness who has been hypnotized for the purposes of refreshing recollection.
The Council finds that recollections obtained during hypnosis can involve confabulations and pseudomemories and not only fail to be more accurate, but actually appear to be less reliable than nonhypnotic recall. The use of hypnosis with witnesses and victims may have serious consequences for the legal process when testimony is based on material that is elicited from a witness who has been hypnotized for the purposes of refreshing recollection.
Davidson, Thomas McCabe (1986, January). Recall organization and volitional/non-volitional experiencing in posthypnotic and intrahypnotic amnesia: Inattention versus dissociation hypotheses (Dissertation, University of Waterloo
"Two studies are reported which seek to evaluate the relative merits of two differing hypotheses concerning the cognitive processes underlying suggested hypnotic amnesia. The inattention hypothesis maintains that amnesia effects are produced when subjects volitionally divert attention from relevant retrieval cues so that recall is inefficient. The dissociation position is that amnesic subjects are prevented from utilizing normally relevant retrieval cues by a dissociative barrier that blocks access to target memories -- a forgetting over which subjects experience no volitional control. The two hypotheses were evaluated by means of a selective amnesia suggestion in the recall organization paradigm. "In the first experiment, high, medium, and low hypnotic susceptible subjects were administered either hypnotic induction or task-motivating instructions. Results indicated that there was no disorganization of amnesia trial recall or forgetting of words not targeted for amnesia, contrary to predictions from the inattention hypothesis. "In the second experiment, high hypnotizable subjects received the selective amnesia suggestion in both posthypnotic and intrahypnotic conditions. Intrahypnotic subjects were also separated into one group that received a ten second interval between the administration of the amnesia suggestion and the amnesia trial, and another group that had a delay between the suggestion and the amnesia trial equivalent to the posthypnotic group. Eight subjects who had testified that they were volitionally amnesic on a pre- screening amnesia test were also included in the posthypnotic condition. Again, the results indicated no recall disorganization or reduction in recall of words not targeted for amnesia. Subjects also uniformly provided evidence that their amnesia was experienced as non-volitional. There was, however, evidence that some amnesiacs were aware during the amnesia trial of the specific category targeted for amnesia. "The most important finding of both experiments is that subjects may attend to normally relevant retrieval cues and yet continue to evidence amnesia. The evidence is therefore consistent with the dissociation hypothesis, but disconfirms the inattention account of hypnotic amnesia. It appears that the selective amnesia context effectively prevents the successful use of volitional forgetting strategies. (Abstract shortened with permission of author)" (p. 3103).
Meagher, Christopher Roberts (1986). Suggestion and posthypnotic amnesia: Altered context or altered state? (Dissertation, University of Oregon
"Posthypnotic amnesia has been investigated in the past and subsequently alluded to as either role enacted behavior or evidence for an altered state of consciousness. In order to gain further understanding of the circumstances which facilitate amnesic behavior, an experiment was carried out which was designed to vary the usual context in which recall and recognition memory are observed during posthypnotic amnesia. The suggestion for posthypnotic amnesia was altered from its usual form in that specific suggestions for recall amnesia and recognition amnesia replaced the usual general suggestion for overall memory impairment. Some Ss received the amnesia suggestion before presentation of the stimulus material rather than after stimulus presentation. In addition to the usual verbal stimuli, nonverbal stimuli were used. "A group of 44 highly hypnotizable, undergraduate Ss was divided into four treatment conditions. Three groups were hypnotized and given instructions to repeat a list of nine words taken from the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, and to copy the nine figures of the Bender Gestalt Test. A fourth group performed these tasks in a normal waking state. One hypnotic group was given prestimulus suggestions for recall and recognition amnesia. Another was given poststimulus suggestions for recall and recognition amnesia, and the third hypnotic group received no amnesia suggestions. The dependent measures consisted of the scores on tests of recall and recognition of the stimulus words and figures. "A repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance revealed significant effects for hypnosis /suggestion condition, type of stimulus, and type of test. Further analysis determined that the two hypnotic groups given amnesia suggestions did not differ from each other but did show significantly greater amnesia than did either the no suggestion hypnotic control group or the waking control group. Recognition performance was significantly better than was recall performance for all groups in both stimulus situations. Nonverbal recall was significantly better than verbal recall for the two control groups given no amnesia suggestion. There was no stimulus effect for any other group and testing condition. The results of this experiment are discussed in terms of theories of hypnosis and memory, contextual variables of the hypnotic situation, and previous germane research" (pp. 409-410).
Radtke, H. Lorraine; Spanos, Nicholas P.; Malva, C. Lori Della; Stam, Henderikus J. (1986). Temporal organization and hypnotic amnesia using a modification of the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 34, 41-54.
The Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (Shor & E. Orne, 1962) was modified to permit better assessment of amnesia and changes in temporal organization during amnesia. First, a baseline measure of recall was obtained before administration of the amnesia suggestion. Second, on the recall trial following cancellation of the suggestion, Ss recalled everything they could remember. Amnesia was assessed by comparing recall during the suggestion with recall before it and after it was canceled. Temporal organization was assessed by correlating the order of item administration with Ss' recall orders. Hypnotic susceptibility and amnesia were independently related to temporal organization. Overall, high hypnotizable Ss organized less than medium or low hypnotizables, and amnesics showed less temporal organization than nonamnesics, but neither of these variables interacted with recall trial. The results are discussed in terms of recent theories of hypnotic amnesia.
NOTES 1:
Subjects in general tended to use less temporal organization during the suggestion compared to the baseline and postsuggestion trials. Although they did not obtain a disorganization effect comparable to that found in the clustering studies (e.g., Spanos & Bodorik, 1977), the results "replicated past studies that found differences in the recall organization of high and low hypnotizables during an amnesia suggestion" (p. 50), while suggesting that "the previous findings were not due to hypnotic amnesia" (p. 50).
Subjects in general tended to use less temporal organization during the suggestion compared to the baseline and postsuggestion trials. Although they did not obtain a disorganization effect comparable to that found in the clustering studies (e.g., Spanos & Bodorik, 1977), the results "replicated past studies that found differences in the recall organization of high and low hypnotizables during an amnesia suggestion" (p. 50), while suggesting that "the previous findings were not due to hypnotic amnesia" (p. 50).
"The baseline differences replicated Schwartz (1980) who found similar differences between high and low hypnotizable Ss following a hypnotic induction procedure but in the absence of an amnesia suggestion. Since we also found differences posthypnotically, it is questionable whether the hypnotic induction procedure was a causal factor in the Schwartz study. Furthermore, the presence of such differences on the postsuggestion trial represents a failure to replicate Evans's (1980) finding of no differences between high and low hypnotizable Ss under comparable nonhypnotic conditions. The present results are also contrary to those of two other studies that found no differences between high and low hypnotizables on rho scores on the amnesia trial (Radtke & Spanos, 1981; St. Jean & Coe, 1981) and a recent study using word stimuli which found a significant correlation between hypnotizability and temporal organization only during the amnesia suggestion (Kihlstrom & Wilson, 1984). Taken together these studies suggest that temporal organization (at least when hypnotic experiences are recalled) varies as a function of hypnotizability and therefore may be attributed to an individual difference factor" (p. 50).
The authors go on to say they have replicated other studies (p. 50), noting that the Harvard may not be the best method for investigating this issue, and individual testing of memory may be better (p. 51).
Schacter, Daniel L. (1986). Amnesia and crime: How much do we really know?. American Psychologist, 41, 286-295.
Claims of amnesia occur frequently after the commission of violent crimes and can have a significant bearing on the outcome of criminal trials. This article considers the relation between amnesia and crime within the broader context of research on memory and amnesia and provides a critical evaluation of current knowledge concerning the issue. Particular attention is paid to the problem of distinguishing between genuine and simulated claims of amnesia. It is suggested that reliable data concerning the nature of amnesic episodes that occur after the commission of a crime are sparse, and that there is as yet little evidence that genuine and simulated amnesia can be distinguished in criminal cases. The results of several laboratory studies are summarized that indicate that feeling-of- knowing ratings distinguished between genuine and simulated amnesia under conditions in which psychologists and psychiatrists did not.
Sheehan, Peter W.; Tilden, Jan (1986). The consistency of occurrences of memory distortion following hypnotic induction. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 34, 122-137.
The present study examined a range of circumstances for their effects on the vulnerability of hypnotic Ss to memory distortion. 26 high and 26 low hypnotizable Ss were tested individually in a design in which Ss received information that was either misleading or not misleading about a series of events depicting an apparent robbery. The information was presented prior to Ss being given hypnotic instructions, and low hypnotizability Ss were especially motivated for positive response in the session. Memory for the robbery was studied across a range of measures that included forced choice recognition, free recall, and response to leading questions. Results demonstrated predictably variable effects. The 2 groups performed appreciably differently in free recall, for example, while in recognition testing, data indicated that high and low hypnotizable Ss both incorporated misleading information into their memories to the same degree. Some implications of the data for the forensic context are discussed.
NOTES 1:
56 Ss were prescreened with Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A, defining highs = 9-12, lows = 0-3. Used Loftus materials for testing memory (wallet snatching sequence, on a series of slides). Errors were classified as errors of fact, of inference, or conjectures. Highs had more intrusions that were errors of fact than lows did (p<.05), confirming the earlier results published by Sheehan & Tilden, 1984. There was no significant association between hypnotizability level and intrusion of central detail (description of robber and victim), but 57% of highs and only 18% of lows intruded peripheral objects incorrectly into their own narrative reports (i.e. descriptions given of the surroundings), p<.01.
56
There were trends for high hypnotizable Ss to recall more objects correctly than low hypnotizable Ss during narrative reporting (p<.06) and to recall more central objects (p<.06), but not more peripheral objects. There may have been a loosening of criteria for memory among high hypnotizables, because they appeared to produce both greater accuracy and inaccuracy in recall of certain types of detail.
During the recognition testing, high hypnotizables exhibited significantly greater confidence in their responses than low hypnotizable Ss, but there was no group difference for accuracy. "Results for both tests of integration then (recognition and free recall) confirmed the prediction that hypnotic Ss incorporate false information into their memory, and the effect did not differentiate high from low hypnotizable Ss" (p. 131).
When a leading question implied that traffic lights were present in the scene, 34% responded in some way to that suggestion, and 20% said that they could see the lights in their minds eye; but 14% said that "although they could not see the lights, they nevertheless remembered they were there" (p. 132). Response to the leading question did not differ between high and low hypnotizable Ss.
In their discussion, the authors note that hypnosis did not enhance memory in this study. "Results overall suggest that hypnotic induction lowers the correspondence between confidence and accuracy. In the present study, hypnotic Ss were confident about their recall when the degree of accuracy of their reports suggested they should have been quite uncertain. Hypnotic instruction itself would appear, then, to establish conditions that spuriously facilitate a high degree of confidence in the reports that Ss produce.
"A major point to be made about the present study is that both general distortion and confidence effects observed here cannot necessarily be attributed to hypnosis. There was no independent comparison condition, for example, to contrast results for hypnotic Ss with results for Ss receiving no induction procedures. Effects, then, could be attributed to the hypnotic context as much as to the effects of induction per se, and context rather than state may be responsible for the vulnerability of hypnotic Ss that has been observed. The influence of context is seen at least in the clear evidence for an interaction between situational factors and hypnotizability. In free recall, hypnotizable Ss were more prone to distortions than unhypnotizable Ss, while in recognition, hypnotizable and unhypnotizable Ss were equally prone. Mode of testing is, therefore, a major contextual variable that is related to the nature of the distortion and confidence effects that can be observed. Present data further indicate that the hypnotic context is associated with memory distortion even in Ss who have little capacity for being hypnotized, but who are instructed to believe that they can, in fact, experience much of what is being suggested" (pp. 133-134).
Forensic implications need to be tempered because of difference between laboratory and real life, but practitioners nevertheless should be cautious. "While it is not true that hypnotized persons, by virtue of their hypnotizability level, will always distort their reports more obviously than nonhypnotic Ss, so as to bring their recollections into line with what is implied or suspected, parameters do exist that clearly increase the risks of distortion that can occur after hypnotic instruction. This is evidenced, for example, by the distinctive distortion effects that have been demonstrated for high hypnotizable Ss when they are given induction instructions and later requested to tell their story in their own way. Overall, the present data imply that the law needs to closely evaluate the impact of the different settings in which hypnosis takes place and the different ways in which misleading information can be communicated to persons who are later asked to testify. The potential risks of hypnosis--as well as its utility--will depend critically on how that information has been conveyed, and the way in which Ss' memories are tested" (pp. 134- 135).
Spanos, Nicholas P.; de Groh, Margaret M.; Bertrand, L. David (1986). Serial organization during posthypnotic amnesia using a modified version of the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale. Psychological Reports, 58, 311-322.
A version of the SHSS:C modified for group testing was administered to 108 subjects. The final item on the scale was modified to enable (a) computation of a continuous amnesia score for each subject and (b) the measurement of serial organization on the recall trials during amnesia and after the cancellation of amnesia. Scores on the SHSS:C (computed without the amnesia item) and amnesia were significantly correlated. Furthermore, SHSS:C scores correlated significantly and negatively with three of four indexes of seriation during amnesia. Amnesia scores, however, correlated significantly with only one of the seriation measures, and in regression analyses the addition of amnesia to SHSS:C scores did not enhance prediction of any organization index. Methodological and theoretical implications are discussed.
Wilson, L.; Kihlstrom, J. F. (1986). Subjective and categorical organization of recall during posthypnotic amnesia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95 (3), 264-73.
Conducted 2 experiments to determine the fate of organization of recall during posthypnotic amnesia. In both studies, amnesia suggestions were administered to undergraduate Ss of low, medium, and high hypnotic susceptibility who had learned a word list by the method of free recall while they were hypnotized. In Exp I (n = 44), words were unrelated to each other, and subjective organization was measured by raw and adjusted pair frequency. In Exp II (n = 59), words were drawn from various taxonomic categories, and category clustering was measured by repetition ratio, modified repetition ratio, and adjusted ratio of clustering. Results indicate that, compared to baseline levels, subjective organization and category clustering did not decrease reliably during the time the amnesia suggestion was in effect. Moreover, these aspects of strategic organization were not significantly correlated with the number of items recalled during amnesia. Both findings contrast with previous results concerning temporal organization of a word list memorized by the method of serial learning. Findings suggest that the disruption of retrieval processes in posthypnotic amnesia may be limited to certain organizational schemes. (43 ref).
1985
Coe, William C.; Yashinski, Edward (1985). Volitional experiences associated with breaching posthypnotic amnesia. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48 (3), 716-722.
Highly responsive hypnotic subjects classified as having control over remembering (voluntaries) or not having control over remembering (involuntaries) during posthypnotic amnesia were compared during posthypnotic recall. Subjects rerated their voluntariness after the experiment. Two contextual conditions were employed (2 x 2 design): a lie detector condition meant to create pressure to breach amnesia and a relax control condition. In contrast to earlier findings, the recall data showed that both voluntary and involuntary subjects breached under the lie detector condition compared with their counterparts in the relax condition; however, the degree of breaching was not great in any condition. The results are discussed as they relate to studies attempting to breach posthypnotic amnesia and characteristics of the voluntary-involuntary dimension.
Eich, Eric; Reeves, John L.; Katz, Ronald L. (1985). Anesthesia, amnesia, and the memory/awareness distinction. Anesthesia and Analgesia, 64, 1143-1148.
Several studies have shown that surgical patients cannot consciously recall or recognize events to which they had been exposed during general anesthesia. Might evidence of memory for intraoperative events be revealed through the performance of a postoperative test that does not require remembering to be deliberate or intentional? Results of the present study, involving the recognition and spelling of semantically biased homophones, suggest a negative answer to this question and imply that intraoperative events cannot be remembered postoperatively, either with or without awareness.
NOTES 1:
"In this experiment, we attempted to apply the distinction between memory and awareness of memory to the question of whether adequately anesthetized and apparently unconscious patients can register and retain what is said in their presence during surgery. Prior research relating to this question has focused, for the most part, on the ability of postoperative patients to recall or recognize a specific item....The inference need not be drawn, however, that 'patients in so-called surgical planes of anesthesia cannot hear' (15, p. 89) or that anesthetized patients cannot encode and store in memory events that transpire during their surgery. The possibility remains that even though the effects of memory for intraoperative events may not--and probably cannot--be revealed in postoperative tests of retention that require remembering to be deliberate or intentional, such effects might be evident in the performance of tests that do not demand awareness of remembering.
"In this experiment, we attempted to apply the distinction between memory and awareness of memory to the question of whether adequately anesthetized and apparently unconscious patients can register and retain what is said in their presence during surgery. Prior research relating to this question has focused, for the most part, on the ability of postoperative patients to recall or recognize a specific item....The inference need not be drawn, however, that 'patients in so-called surgical planes of anesthesia cannot hear' (15, p. 89) or that anesthetized patients cannot encode and store in memory events that transpire during their surgery. The possibility remains that even though the effects of memory for intraoperative events may not--and probably cannot--be revealed in postoperative tests of retention that require remembering to be deliberate or intentional, such effects might be evident in the performance of tests that do not demand awareness of remembering.
"To explore the possible dissociation between memory and awareness of memory for intraoperative events, we modeled our experiment after a recent neuropsychological study by Jacoby and Witherspoon (5)" (p. 1143).
"...it appears that the prior presentation of a word has a substantial impact on its subsequent interpretation and spelling, regardless of whether or not the word is correctly classified as 'old' in a later test of recognition memory" (p. 1144).
"Approached from the standpoint of anesthesia theory and practice, the idea that recognition and spelling tap different memory processes or systems raises an interesting question for research. Specifically, suppose that during surgery, an anesthetized patient listens to a series of short, descriptive phrases, each consisting of a homophone and one or two words that bias the homophone's less common interpretation (e.g., war and PEACE, deep SEA). Suppose further that several days after surgery, the patient is read a list composed chiefly of old and new homophones (i.e., ones that either had or had not been presented intraoperatively) on two successive occasions. On one occasion, the patient is simply asked to spell each list item aloud; on the other occasion, the patient is asked to state aloud which list items he or she recognizes as having been presented during surgery. Given the situation sketched above, might the patient spell significantly more old than new homophones in line with their less common interpretations, and yet fail to reliably discriminate between the two types of items in the test of recognition memory" (p. 1144).
Klatzky, Roberta L.; Erdelyi, Matthew H. (1985). The response criterion problem in tests of hypnosis and memory. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 33, 246-257.
Past experimental research on the effects of hypnosis on memory indicates both that hypnosis produces increases in correct recalls and that hypnosis produces increased vulnerability to misleading information and intrusions in recall. The present paper uses the framework of signal detection theory to account for this pattern of data. It suggests that the effects of hypnosis on memory cannot be ascertained from previous work, because of a general failure to discriminate between effects on the amount of information retrieved from memory and the criterion adopted by Ss for reporting what they remember.
NOTES 1:
Past experimental research indicates that hypnosis produces increases in correct recalls and as well as increased vulnerability to misleading information and intrusions in recall. This paper uses signal detection theory to account for the data. Signal detection theory describes performance as reflecting two underlying parameters--the information accessible to S at any point in time (designated as d') and the criterion adopted by S when making decisions about memory reports (report or decision criterion, response bias, or Beta). They review the recent literature on hypnosis and memory and conclude:
Past experimental research indicates that hypnosis produces increases in correct recalls and as well as increased vulnerability to misleading information and intrusions in recall. This paper uses signal detection theory to account for the data. Signal detection theory describes performance as reflecting two underlying parameters--the information accessible to S at any point in time (designated as d') and the criterion adopted by S when making decisions about memory reports (report or decision criterion, response bias, or Beta). They review the recent literature on hypnosis and memory and conclude:
1. When the response output is not controlled, hypnotic instructions and/or hypnotizable have been found to produce increases in the number of correct recalls but his does not mean that the accessible information in memory has increased. What may be changing is the criterion for report.
2. When the response output is not controlled, hypnotic instructions and/or hypnotizable have been found to produce increases in incorrect recalls, i.e., intrusions, and compliance with leading questions, but this does not mean diminution or distortion of accessible memory (d'). What may be changing is the criterion for report.
3. When response bias is controlled, hypnosis has been found to produce no enhancement of recognition but this does not imply that (a) Beta cannot change in recognition tests where it is allowed to vary, nor that (be) hypnosis has no effect on recall.
4. The proper experiment to determine whether hypnosis affects the accessibility of information in memory should place demands on the retrieval process and control the criterion for memory report.
The most decisive experimental outcome for the forensic situation would be a null or negative one: the demonstration that hypnosis does not enhance measures of memory accessibility. Then there would be no reason to use hypnosis to enhance memory.
1985-1986
Kunzendorf, Robert G.; Benoit, Michelle (1985-86). Spontaneous post-hypnotic amnesia and spontaneous rehypnotic recovery in repressors. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 5 (4), 303-310.
The Salpetriere school of hypnosis posited that _true_ hypnotic effects occur spontaneously in people with repressive tendencies. Consistent with this early position, the current study indicates that both spontaneous amnesia after hypnosis and spontaneous recovery during rehypnosis are statistically associated with repression (but not with hypnotic suggestibility). In contrast, both suggested forgetting and suggested recovery are statistically associated with hypnotic suggestibility (but not with repression). Whereas the latter effects of suggestibility are attributable to the demand characteristics of hypnotic suggestions, the spontaneous effects of hypnosis on repressors' memories are not reducible to social psychological principles.
1985
Simon, Michael J.; Salzberg, Herman, C. (1985). The effect of manipulated expectancies on posthypnotic amnesia. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 33, 40-51.
The effects of manipulated S expectancy and direct suggestions for amnesia on posthypnotic amnesia were assessed. 120 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to 6 groups: negative expectancy (for amnesia)/suggestions (for amnesia); no expectancy/suggestions; negative expectancy/no suggestions; no expectancy/no suggestions; and 2 control groups. The results indicated that the expectancy manipulation had no effect on the occurrence of posthypnotic amnesia measured by the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form A (Weitzenhoffer & Hilgard, 1959), whereas suggestions for amnesia were found to have a significant effect. Hypnotized suggestion and no suggestion Ss remembered significantly less than Ss in the nonhypnotized control groups. The implications of the findings are discussed.
NOTES 1:
"The results of the study do not support Young and Cooper's (1972) earlier work which indicated that S expectancies play an important role in the occurrence of posthypnotic amnesia. [They do] support previous research (Hilgard & Cooper, 1965) which has shown that direct suggestions for amnesia play an important role in the occurrence of posthypnotic amnesia. It is also worth noting that forgetting was significantly greater for suggestion group Ss than for no suggestion Ss. In other words, the suggestion Ss could not remember as many items as the no suggestion Ss, even after the amnesia suggestions were lifted. This appears to be a replication of the 'residual amnesia' effect reported in previous studies (Hilgard & Hommel, 1961; Kihlstrom & Evans, 1977), in that Ss who showed a high level of initial amnesia (suggestion Ss) continued to display a persistence of the amnesia process, despite the cue to terminate amnesia" (p. 48).
"The results of the study do not support Young and Cooper's (1972) earlier work which indicated that S expectancies play an important role in the occurrence of posthypnotic amnesia. [They do] support previous research (Hilgard & Cooper, 1965) which has shown that direct suggestions for amnesia play an important role in the occurrence of posthypnotic amnesia. It is also worth noting that forgetting was significantly greater for suggestion group Ss than for no suggestion Ss. In other words, the suggestion Ss could not remember as many items as the no suggestion Ss, even after the amnesia suggestions were lifted. This appears to be a replication of the 'residual amnesia' effect reported in previous studies (Hilgard & Hommel, 1961; Kihlstrom & Evans, 1977), in that Ss who showed a high level of initial amnesia (suggestion Ss) continued to display a persistence of the amnesia process, despite the cue to terminate amnesia" (p. 48).
"Although the nonstate theorists' argument cannot be completely dismissed, there are two points which tend to make the present findings particularly striking. Both concern the fact that the odds were actually stacked against the control group Ss remembering more than Ss in the hypnosis group, for reasons inherent in the design of the study. First of all, the control Ss ere asked to engage in a set of routine and boring tasks. In contrast, the hypnosis group Ss were given instructions aimed at having them experience rather unusual phenomena which were significantly outside the realm of everyday experience. It seems logical to assume that such experience would be rather memorable. Second is the fact that the standardized scoring procedure which was used by the raters to score Ss' responses unavoidably favored the hypnosis group Ss. This was primarily because the number of acceptable responses was far greater for the hypnotized Ss, since in many cases a verbal description of the feelings or sensations which accompanied the task was sufficient to score the item as remembered. Thus, this finding suggests that the hypnotic state, in and of itself, may have had some inhibiting effect on memory. In other words, hypnotized Ss who did not receive any suggestions for amnesia may show more "forgetting" than nonhypnotized Ss due to some intrinsic characteristic of the hypnotized state. It is unlikely, however, that the extent of this "spontaneous" effect can ever be accurately determined because it will always be confounded by the internal expectations that Ss bring with them into the laboratory" (p. 49).
1984
Perry, Campbell
Janet's concept of dissociation, Freud's notion of the Censor and Hilgard's multiple controls of consciousness are considered in relation to the hidden observer (HO) phenomenon. A review of reports of recent research, including that of the author and co- workers, indicates that the hidden observer effect occurs only in 40-50% of high susceptible subjects. It is speculated that subjects who show Hidden observer have maintained some contact with reality whilst those high susceptibles who do not show hidden observer are more deeply involved in hypnosis.
NOTES 1:
Author describes a series of experiments in their laboratory. Ss are double screened to select highly hypnotizable people, and accepted into the research only if they pass the amnesia item of SHSS:C and most of the other 11 items of that scale. Ss are told that hypnosis is a procedure which permits subjects to exercise various skills or abilities such as relaxation, imagination, imagery, absorption and selective attention--that everyone has some of these skills to varying degrees, and that hypnosis is one of many techniques (including yoga, etc.) for bringing out these skills and abilities. All sessions are videotaped for the Experiential Analysis Technique (EAT). The Hidden Observer (HO) procedure was modified so that E touched the S's shoulder lightly at the start of the item, and a second time to terminate the item. Whereas Hilgard used cold pressor pain, they used a mildly unpleasant shock provided by a Take-Me-Along electric stimulator.
Author describes a series of experiments in their laboratory. Ss are double screened to select highly hypnotizable people, and accepted into the research only if they pass the amnesia item of SHSS:C and most of the other 11 items of that scale. Ss are told that hypnosis is a procedure which permits subjects to exercise various skills or abilities such as relaxation, imagination, imagery, absorption and selective attention--that everyone has some of these skills to varying degrees, and that hypnosis is one of many techniques (including yoga, etc.) for bringing out these skills and abilities. All sessions are videotaped for the Experiential Analysis Technique (EAT). The Hidden Observer (HO) procedure was modified so that E touched the S's shoulder lightly at the start of the item, and a second time to terminate the item. Whereas Hilgard used cold pressor pain, they used a mildly unpleasant shock provided by a Take-Me-Along electric stimulator.
Replying to Spanos and Hewitt (1980) in which data was interpreted as implying that the HO is an artifact of demand characteristics, "It struck me then, and still does, that people like Hilgard and ourselves, who believe that the HO is a phenomenon of hypnosis and not just some laboratory artifact, can only get it 40-50% of the time, whereas the investigators like Spanos and Hewitt, who believe it is all laboratory artifact, get the phenomenon almost 100% of the time. Usually it is the other way around, so it seems to me that if the HO is an artifact, it is unique in the history of psychology" (p. 77).
They found that all highs with the HO also reported subjective experiences similar to HO experience when they were not hypnotized. "For instance, one female subject who has the HO, insists that she is not hypnotized, despite compelling evidence to the contrary, because she feels the same way when she is not hypnotized. By contrast, another subject who is interested in creative writing reports HO type experiences when she is on a creativity binge and also when she is stoned" (p. 79).
They observed several consistent findings in their research: "(1) contrary to the belief that subjects who report HO's are more susceptible than those who do not, our findings are the reverse" (p. 79). The differences are not large enough to be significant, but that may be due to a ceiling effect on the scales since the subjects are already selected to be high hypnotizables. "(2) A second repeated observation is that when all the Ss were administered the HO instructions, they were given a second electric shock to the still analgesic hand, and asked to report the degree of pain they felt on a 1-10 scale where 1 = no pain and 10 = extreme pain. ... the HOs report having the HO experience and their pain reports on the 1-10 scale increase, in the manner described by Hilgard using cold pressor pain. The no HOS report no subjective difference, and their degree of analgesia actually increases" (p. 79).
The author describes further studies in which they obtained results in the opposite direction from what they had expected, based on the supposition that people who do not have the HO appear to set aside critical judgement more and to be more imaginatively involved. "So the finding of greater recall after reversal of amnesia for the no HOs both on number of items and on bits was a surprise" (p. 81). When they extended this research into the area of pseudo-memories, they found that "of the 8 subjects who had the HO, 7 of them believed the pseudo-memory was real. Of the 19 subjects who did not have the HO, only 6 of them accepted the pseudo-memory as real ... The effect was even stronger for duality in age regression. Of 12 subjects reporting duality, 10 reported the hallucinated noises as real; of the 15 with no duality, 3 accepted the reality of the pseudo-memory as actually having happened" (p. 81).
Spanos, Nicholas P.; Tkachyk, M.; Bertrand, L. D.; Weekes, J. R. (1984). The dissipation hypothesis of amnesia: More disconfirming evidence. Psychological Reports, 55, 191-196.
Hypnotic subjects were administered a suggestion to forget a previously overlearned word list. Before cancellation of the suggestion they were challenged twice to try and recall the words. Subjects in one group received a second challenge immediately after response to the first. Those in the second group were given a 15-min. delay before their second challenge. Subjects in both groups showed less amnesia after the second challenge than after the first, but the length of delay between challenges had no effect on amnesia scores. These findings are inconsistent with the hypothesis that hypnotic amnesia involves an involuntary blockage of memory that decays spontaneously with time.
1983
Dillon, F. Richard; Spanos, Nicholas P. (1983). Proactive interference and the functional ablation hypothesis: More disconfirmatory data. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 31, 47-56.
According to the functional ablation hypothesis, memories for which amnesia has been hypnotically suggested do not interact with other information in memory. This hypothesis was tested in 2 interrelated experiments. In Experiment 1, Ss high and low in hypnotic susceptibility were administered a hypnotic induction procedure and tested on a Brown-Peterson (e.g., Wickens & Gittis, 1974) memory task designed to induce proactive interference (PI). Ss were exposed to 10 blocks of successive 3-word lists. Within each block, all words were strongly related, and, therefore, lists presented early in a block interfered with the retention of lists presented later (PI "buildup"). Following the "buildup" of PI, Ss were administered either a cue to be amnesic for the previous words of a block or a cue to relax. Contrary to the functional ablation hypothesis, the amnesia suggestion did not produce a "release" from PI in high susceptible hypnotic Ss. In other words, the amnesia suggestion did not prevent previously learned material from interfering with newly presented material. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the amnesia cues employed in the Brown-Peterson task produced a reversible recall deficit even though they failed to produce PI "release." These findings are consistent with the results of studies of the functional ablation hypothesis using the retroactive interference paradigms
1983
Geiselman, Ralph E.; Fishman, D. L.; Jaenicke, C.; Larner, B. R.; MacKinnon, D. P.; et al. (1983). Mechanisms of hypnotic and nonhypnotic forgetting. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 9, 626-635.
40 undergraduates participated in 2 experimental sessions designed to study laboratory-induced amnesia, one using a standard hypnosis paradigm and one using a nonhypnotic directed forgetting paradigm. Two independent sources of variation were derived from the hypnotic amnesia data: retrieval inhibition and inhibition release. In the nonhypnotic directed-forgetting procedure, some items were cued to be either forgotten or remembered. At test, over 39% of the variance in the recall of the to-be-forgotten items could be accounted for by the inhibition and release constructs obtained with hypnosis. These relations between the 2 procedures were not mediated by verbal ability (WAIS) or cognitive style (Hidden Figures Test). It is concluded that the mechanisms of forgetting involved in laboratory demonstrations of hypnotic and nonhypnotic amnesia are related, and the implication is that some of them are the same, namely, retrieval inhibition and inhibition release. Possible demand characteristics that accompany the hypnosis procedure were not apparent with the nonhypnotic procedure. Results provide evidence that hypnotically induced amnesia is not entirely the result of Ss' reactions to demand characteristics.
Kihlstrom, John F.; Easton
Repeated testing of posthypnotic amnesia indicates that some Ss, initially responsive to the suggestion, show appreciable recovery of memory before the pre- arranged signal is given to cancel the amnesia. Comparison of Ss who received 2 successive memory tests during amnesia with others who received only a single test preceded by a distracting activity indicated that the recovery effect was attributable to the passage of time rather than to prior testing. There were wide individual differences in the extent of recovery, with some Ss maintaining a fairly dense amnesia on the second test. Those Ss who maintained amnesia were more hypnotizable, and showed a denser initial amnesia, than those who breached it. An analysis of subjective reports lent credence to the notion of partial response among some hypnotizable Ss who fail to meet a standard criterion of complete amnesia, and pseudoamnesia among some insusceptible Ss who appear to pass it. Some Ss reported voluntarily engaging in cognitive activity designed to induce forgetting, but these reports were related to neither the occurrence of initial amnesia nor its persistence. A failure of memory which reflects momentary disorientation upon transition from one mental state to another should be conceptually distinguished from a reversible amnesia initiated by hypnotic suggestion.
Nogrady, Heather; McConkey, Kevin M.; Laurence, Jean-Roch; Perry, Campbell
Examined hypnotic dissociation (as indexed by the "hidden-observer" method), duality in age regression, and the potential impact of situational cues on these phenomena. 12 high- and 9 low-susceptible undergraduates (as determined by the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale) were tested in an application of the real-simulating paradigm of hypnosis; 10 high- to medium-susceptible Ss were also employed. Inquiry into Ss' experiences was conducted through the experiential analysis technique, which involves Ss viewing and commenting on a videotape playback of their hypnotic session. Results demonstrate that neither the hidden-observer effect nor duality could be explained solely in terms of the demand characteristics of the test situation. The hidden-observer effect was observed in high-susceptible Ss only; all Ss who displayed the hidden-observer effect also displayed duality in age regression. High-susceptible Ss were distinctive in their reports of multiple levels of awareness during hypnosis. Findings are discussed in terms of the cognitive skills that Ss bring to hypnosis and the degree to which the hypnotic setting encourages the use of dissociative cognitive processes. (43 ref).
Simon, Michael J. (1983). The effect of manipulated expectancies on posthypnotic amnesia (Dissertation, University of South Carolina
"An attempt was made to determine the effects of manipulating subject expectancy on posthypnotic amnesia. The manipulation involved having Ss read an essay which included a paragraph informing them that they would have no trouble remembering what happened upon awakening form the trance. The effects of direct suggestions for amnesia were also assessed. "One hundred and twenty undergraduate students were randomly assigned to six groups: Negative Expectancy for amnesia/Suggestions for amnesia, No Expectancy for amnesia/Suggestions for amnesia, Negative Expectancy for amnesia/No Suggestions for amnesia, No Expectancy for amnesia/ No Suggestions for amnesia, and two control groups. "Subjects in the Suggestion conditions were administered the standard version of the Stanford Hypnotic Supports Scale Form A (SHSS-A). The No Suggestion subjects were administered a modified version of the SHSS-A which made no references to, and gave no suggestions for, posthypnotic amnesia. Finally, the control subjects were given a more drastically modified version of the scale in which the hypnotic induction as well as all references to hypnosis were eliminated. The control groups were employed to provide an estimate of the amount of forgetting exhibited by subjects who are not hypnotized. "The results indicated that the expectancy manipulation had no effect on the occurrence of posthypnotic amnesia as measured by the SHSS-A, while suggestions for amnesia were found to have a significant effect. Both Suggestion and No Suggestion subjects remembered significantly less than the subjects in the control groups. The implications of the findings were discussed" (p. 2358).
1982
Schuyler, Bradley A. (1982). Further investigation of volitional and nonvolitional experience during posthypnotic amnesia (Dissertation, California School of Professional Psychology Fresno
"Electrodermal responses were compared between highly responsive hypnotic Ss who were classified as having control over remembering (voluntaries) or not having control over remembering (involuntaries) during posthypnotic amnesia. Three contextual conditions were employed: Two were meant to create pressure to breach posthypnotic amnesia (lie detector instructions alone or with feedback that Ss had been detected as not having told all they could remember); the other provided feedback, in addition to the lie detector instructions, that Ss had told all they could remember. The recall data confirmed earlier findings of Coe and Yashinski and showed that voluntary and involuntary Ss did not differ in response to the contextual conditions. However, lie detector instructions alone did not create pressure to breach as in previous studies. In addition, electrodermal results were insignificant. The results are discussed as they relate to (a) amnesia, (b) the physiological detection of deception and physiological activation, (c) the voluntary/involuntary classification of Ss, and (d) theories of hypnosis" (p. 1977).
Previous research has shown that hypnotic Ss tend to underestimate the duration of the hypnotic interval (Bowers, 1979; Bowers & Brenneman, 1979). Based on Ornstein's (1970) work, the present investigation tested the hypothesis that such underestimation occurs to the extent that Ss are amnesic for the events of the hypnotic session. Two separate studies, in which time estimates were collected in conjunction with administrations of the Harvard, failed to find a relationship between responses to the amnesia suggestion and time estimation. Ss in both studies substantially underestimated the duration of the hypnotic interval, but the degree of such underestimation was not related to hypnotic responsiveness. Thus, Ornstein's hypothesis that underestimation occurs to the extent that Ss are amnesic for the events of the hypnotic session was strongly disconfirmed.
1981
McConkey, Kevin M.; Sheehan, Peter W. (1981). The impact of videotape playback of hypnotic events on posthypnotic amnesia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 90 (1), 46-54.
Examined the breakdown of amnesia by showing 48 hypnotic and nonhypnotic undergraduates (Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility) a videotape of the hypnotic events they had experienced. The extent of the amnesia for these events was defined precisely, and simulating procedures were employed to analyze the cues in the overall test situation. Videotape display of the hypnotic events was presented via the Experiential Analysis Technique and served to optimize conditions for breakdown. Some hypnotic Ss' amnesia could not be broken down even though they were exposed via videotape playback to the events to be recalled and when suggestions for the period of amnesia were quite explicit. Simulators showed breaching of amnesia but attributed their recall to the videotape rather than to the hypnotic session. Hypnotic Ss were distinctive in their inability to recall experiential aspects of their performance even though they could recall behavioral aspects. The data are discussed in relation to the hypothesis that dissociative cognitive mechanisms underlie posthypnotic amnesia. (22 ref).
Radtke, H. Lorraine; Spanos, Nicholas P. (1981). Temporal sequencing during posthypnotic amnesia: A methodological critique. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 90, 476-485.
In studies by Evans and Kihlstrom (1973, 1975, 1979), high susceptibles were less likely than low susceptibles to recall the events of the hypnotic session in temporal sequence (i.e., temporal disorganization effect) following an amnesia suggestion. The primary measure of recall order was the rank-order correlation (rho scores) between the presentation order and the recall order of hypnotic experiences computed for each S. Following a suggestion for posthypnotic amnesia, HSs usually obtained lower rho scores than LSs. This research is critically examined, noting methodological shortcomings associated with the susceptibility-scale paradigm, inconsistent findings, and failures to replicate. Two studies are described that found no relationship between susceptibility level and rho scores. These null results held true for Ss who recalled new information after cancellation of the amnesia suggestion (reversers) as well as for those who did not recall new information (nonreversers). Nevertheless, the authors have replicated previous work on differential recall of the first item.
Kihlstrom, John F.; Evans, Frederick J.; Orne, Emily C.; Orne, Martin T. (1980). Attempting to breach posthypnotic amnesia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 89 (5), 603-616.
Traditionally, posthypnotic amnesia has been construed as a subjectively compelling deficit in memory retrieval. Alternatively, it may represent a motivated failure to utilize appropriate retrieval cues, lack of effort in recall, active suppression of memory, or unwillingness to verbalize the critical material. In an effort to test the alternative hypothesis of amnesia, 488 college students were presented with 4 kinds of instructions (using 4 modifications of the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotizability, Form A) designed to overcome the effects of suggested posthypnotic amnesia. The instructions particularly affected Ss of low and moderate hypnotizability who failed the criterion for amnesia. For those of moderate and high hypnotizability who met the criterion for amnesia, however, explicit requests for temporal organization, exhortations to maximize recall, and demands for honesty in reporting produced no greater effect on memory than did a simple retest. Results place some boundaries on both the traditional and alternative views of posthypnotic amnesia and invite further exploration of both cognitive and contextual models of the phenomenon.
Spanos, Nicholas P.; Radtke-Bodorik, H. Lorraine; Stam, Henderikus J. (1980). Disorganized recall during suggested amnesia: Fact not artifact. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 89 (1), 1-19.
In 3 experiments and a reanalysis of previous data, hypnotic and nonhypnotic Ss learned a 9-item categorized word list and were then given an amnesia suggestion for the list. Clustering of recall was measured on the recall trials immediately before the suggestion, during it, and after it was canceled. In Experiment I with 173 undergraduates, hypnotic Ss showed more amnesia than task-motivated Ss. However, partial nonrecallers in both of these treatments showed disorganized (i.e., less clustered) recall during the suggestion as compared to before it or after canceling it. Experiment II, with 100 university students, disconfirmed the hypothesis that the greater amnesia of hypnotic as compared to task-motivated Ss, was due to high levels of relaxation in the hypnotic Ss. Disorganization was again found in partial nonrecallers. The reanalysis of clustering data from previous experiments with 196 Ss demonstrated that the disorganization effect was not an artifact produced by reduced recall during the suggestion period, and Experiment II (with 166 18-42 year old Ss) indicated that Ss who followed instructions and faked partial amnesia when explicitly asked to do so (simulators) showed no disorganization effect. An inattention-encoding specificity hypothesis was developed to account for these findings.
Stam, Henderikus J.; Radtke-Bodorik , Lorraine
In an attempt to replicate and extend a study by S. R. Clemes, 2 groups of 10 undergraduate hypnotic Ss learned a list of 18 words and were given an amnesia suggestion telling them they would be able to remember only 10 of these words. Half of the list words were critical (i.e., considered to be related to repressed conflictual material) and half were neutral (unrelated to conflictual material) as determined by Ss' responses to a word association test. Experimental Ss received their own critical and neutral words and yoked control Ss received the critical and neutral words of experimental Ss. Neither the experimental nor the yoked control group exhibited selective amnesia in favor of critical words, thus constituting a failure to replicate Clemes's result. However, variables affecting the degree to which words were initially learned (e.g., imagery value, serial position) predicted their resistance to amnesia. These findings are inconsistent with a repression hypothesis but congruent with an inattention hypothesis of suggested amnesia. (41 ref).
Weitzenhoffer, Andre M. (1980). Hypnotic susceptibility revisited. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 22, 130-146.
The concept and measurement of hypnotic susceptibility are re-examined in their relation to hypnotizability, hypnotic depth and suggestibility. The Stanford Scales and similar instruments are found to have failed to take into account essential features defining traditional hypnosis and suggestibility and to have created confusion in the scientific inquiry into hypnotism. Other available measures have not been particularly successful, but some bear further attention. Recent claims that hypnotizability can be trained have failed to distinguish between hypnotizability proper and accessory processes, leaving some question about what is actually being trained. Possible future directions of work on susceptibility are considered. Attempts to distinguish between 'clinical' and 'laboratory' hypnotizability are examined and found to have been premature and loosely based on facts.
1979
Karlin, Robert A. (1979). Hypnotizability and attention. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 88 (1), 92-95.
An attentional explanation of cognitive hypnotic phenomena (e.g., hallucinations and amnesia) based on the ability to shift the pertinence of stored information was developed. It was hypothesized that individuals who were successful at a difficult attentional task would also succeed on cognitive hypnotic items. The Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A was used to assess hypnotizability. To measure pertinence-shift ability, two tape recordings made by the same person were played through a single sound source. One tape was designated the target tape. Amount remembered and perceived task ease were summed to form an additive score of task success. Subjects above the median on the task were assigned to the good pertinence shift group (GP); those below the median were assigned to the poor pertinence shift group (PP). As predicted, GP subjects passed significantly more cognitive hypnotic items than did PP subjects (p<.05). When task difficulty and compliance were controlled for, the results remained significant (p<.05). These results were replicated in a second study.
NOTES 1:
A brief version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis,Asheville , North Carolina
A brief version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis,
Orne, Martin T. (1979). The use and misuse of hypnosis in court. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 27, 311-341
The various forensic contexts in which hypnosis has been used are reviewed, emphasizing its advantages and pitfalls. The technique may be helpful in the context of criminal investigation and under circumstances involving functional memory loss. Hypnosis has no utility to assure the truthfulness of statements since, particularly in a forensic context, subjects may simulate hypnosis and are able to willfully lie even in deep hypnosis; most troublesome, actual memories cannot be distinguished from confabulations either by the subject or by the hypnotist without full and independent corroboration. While potentially useful to refresh witnesses' and victims' memories to facilitate eyewitness identification, the procedure is relatively safe and appropriate only when neither the subject, nor the authorities, nor the hypnotist have any preconceptions about who the criminal might be. If such preconceptions do exist -- either based on information acquired before the hypntotic procedure or on information subtly communicated during the hypnotic procedure -- hypnosis may readily cause the subject to confabulate the person who is suspected into his "hypnotically enhanced memories." These pseudomemoreis, originally developed in hypnosis, may come to be accepted by the subject as his actual recall of the original events; they are then remembered with great subjective certainty and reported with conviction. Such circumstances can create convincing, apparently objective "eyewitnesses" rather than facilitating actual recall. A number of minimal safeguards are proposed to reduce the likelihood of such an eventuality and other serious potential abuses of hypnosis.
1977
Following two surgical operations under hypnotic anesthesia, it was possible, during subsequent recall under hypnosis, to elicit a representation of the past operative experience. It would seem that under hypnosis there is a persistence of the perception of nociceptive information and of its recognition as such by the subject. From an analysis of these two experiments in recall, it is possible to formulate several hypotheses concerning the psychological processes involved in hypnotic analgesia. In consequence of an affective relationship, in which the hypnotist's word assumes a special importance for the subject, the latter has recourse to two kinds of mechanism: a) internal (assimilation to an analogous sensation, not, however, registered as dangerous-- rationalization); and b) external (total compliance with the interpretations proposed by the hypnotist), which lead to a qualitative transformation of nociceptive information, as also the inhibition of the behavioral manifestations normally associated with a painful stimulus.
Fisher, R. (1977). On flashback and hypnotic recall. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 217-235.
This essay deals with both the intra-individual and inter-individual varieties of arousal state-bound experiences. The former are labelled as "flashbacks" while the latter embrace the great fantasms and repetitive schemes, the ever re-written plots and images of literature, art, and religion.
Flashbacks are both arousal-state and stage (i.e., set and setting) bound experiences.
Flashback and hypnotic recall differ only in the ways by which they are induced. Induction methods should be distinguished from induced states on the hyperaroused perception-hallucination and hypoaroused eprception-meditation continuum.
Flashbackers may be characterized by their (a) variability on perceptual-behavioral tasks; (b) tendency to minimize (or reduce) sensory input; (c) high resting heart rates; (d) hypnotizability; and, hence (e) preferential right-cerebral-hemispheric cognition; and (f) a display of EEG-alpha dominance in the resting, waking state.
1976
Coe, William C.; Basden, B.; Basden, D.; Graham, C. (1976). Posthypnotic amnesia: Suggestions of an active process in dissociative phenomena. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 85, 455-458.
A retroactive inhibition design was used to examine the process of posthypnotic amnesia. The results supported the notion that "forgotten" material is as available to amnesic subjects at some level as it is to nonamnesic subjects. Further, so- called forgetting appears to be the result of an active process, that is, something the subject does. Implications for understanding dissociative phenomena in general are discussed.
Coe, William C.; Baugher, R. J.; Krimm, W. R.; Smith, J. A. (1976). A further examination of selective recall following hypnosis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 24, 13-21.
29 Ss were tested for posthypnotic amnesia on SHSS:C. They rated each item for emotional tone (pleasant-unpleasant) and judged whether or not they had passed or failed it. There was some support for the notion that failed items are judged more unpleasant than passed items, but the emotional tone of an item was not related to its being recalled posthypnotically. There were minimal findings to suggest that Ss recall items which stand out in their experience. Discrepancies with earlier findings and the possible role of processes associated with normal memory are discussed.
Spanos, Nicholas P.; Spillane, Jeanne; McPeake, John (1976). Cognitive strategies and response to suggestion in hypnotic and task-motivated subjects. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 18, 254-262.
Thirty-two male and 32 female subjects, exposed to an hypnotic induction or task-motivational instruction, were administered either three suggestions which provided a cognitive strategy (i.e., a goal-directed fantasy, GDF) for experiencing suggested effects, or three suggestions that did not provide such a strategy. Subjects provided with GDF strategies were more responsive overtly and subjectively to two out of the three suggestions. Subjects in the No GDF Strategy treatment who spontaneously devised their own goal-directed fantasies were more responsive to suggestions than subjects who failed to devise such a strategy. These results support the contention that goal-directed fantasy helps both hypnotic and non-hypnotic subjects experience suggested effects.
NOTES
The suggestions were for arm levitation, arm rigidity, and amnesia.
Stewart, C. G.; Dunlap, W. P. (1976). Functional isolation of associations during suggested posthypnotic amnesia. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 24, 426-434.
A search was made for functional isolation effects of hypnotic amnesia that do not derive directly from either the explicit content or simple demand characteristics of amnesia instructions. The frequency of response repetition on a word association task was investigated as a function of posthypnotically suggested recall amnesia during the normal waking state. A trace of evidence for predicted amnesia effects occurred with only 1 out of 6 intensively trained, highly susceptible subjects. The results are compatible with the view that (a) suggested recall amnesia produces a disturbance of the retrieval process similar to source amnesia, and (b) indirect associational measures then merely serve to stimulate retrieval.
1970
Goldstein, M. S.; Sipprelle, Carl N. (1970). Hypnotically induced amnesia versus ablation of memory. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 19 (3), 211-216. (Abstracted in Current Contents, 2, 35, 21)
Divided 33 hypnotizable undergraduates, all capable of achieving the criterion of amnesia for a 7-digit number, into 3 groups: 2 hypnotized and 1 pretend. The distributions of errors for an amnesic performance of these groups were compared with the theoretical chance distribution of errors expected in an amnesic performance. Both hypnotized groups differed significantly from the pretend group and from the theoretical distribution, while the performance of the pretend group did not differ significantly from the chance distribution. The performance of the pretend group conformed to the expectancy for amnesia significantly better than did the performance of either of the hypnosis groups. (Spanish & German summaries) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved)
1969
Barber, Theodore Xenophon (1969). An empirically-based formulation of hypnosis. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 12 (2), 100-130.
A formulation is presented which does not invoke a special state of consciousness ("hypnosis" or "trance") to account for the behaviors that have been historically associated with the word hypnotism. Instead, so-called hypnotic behaviors - e.g., "analgesia," "hallucination," "age-regression," and "amnesia" - are conceived to be functionally related to denotable antecedent variables which are similar to those that control performance in a variety of interpersonal test-situations. The antecedent variables which determine behavior in a "hypnotic" situation include Ss' attitudes, expectancies, and motivations with respect to the situation, and the wording and tone of instructions- suggestions and of questions used to elicit subjective reports. The formulation is exemplified by several dozen experimental studies, and prospects for further research are delineated.
Raginsky, Bernard B. (1969). Hypnotic recall of aircrash cause. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 17, 1-19.
Discusses the use of hypnotic techniques to help a 33-yr-old male recall suppressed material which implicated him in an aircrash. The cause was found after 2 short hypnotic sessions, where other methods used over 2 years had failed. The method can be used in all cases of amnesia. The S was made to hallucinate a threatening situation, and his hallucination gave a clue to the basic problem. He was then made to hallucinate a pleasant scene, which gave an indication of the method he used to escape from the problem. This was repeated at the 2nd session for confirmation. If the patient did not bring up the required material by free association under hypnosis, a dissociation of the personality induced in which the observing ego watched what the experiencing ego was doing to cause the accident. The results demonstrated that hypnotic techniques were more successful than sodium amytal interviews, free association, psychiatric interviews, physical and emotional isolation, pressure by authorities, and kindness of friends. Reference was made to the problems involved when the interests of the S were in conflict with public safety. (Spanish & German summaries) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Thorne, D. Eugene
Explored the relative effects of 2 factors on short-term memory for a paired-associate learning task. 36 undergraduate and graduate paid volunteers were stratified, according to their Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A scores, into 3 groups of 12 Ss each. The Ss within each of the 3 groups were then evenly but randomly assigned to 3 treatment conditions, which differed in terms of the kind of motivational procedure in which suggestions of amnesia for a recently learned paired-associate task were given. Results did not directly support or were sometimes contrary to predictions derived from popular hypnosis theories, which assert that posthypnotic amnesia is a reliable behavioral criterion for the "hypnotic state." (Spanish & German summaries) (32 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
1968
Barber, Theodore Xenophon; Calverley, David S. (1968). Toward a theory of 'hypnotic' behavior: Replication and extension of experiments by Barber and co-workers (1962-65) and Hilgard and Tart (1966). International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 16, 179-195.
RESPONSES TO TEST SUGGESTIONS (E.G., HALLUCINATION AND AMNESIA) WERE ASSESSED UNDER THE FOLLOWING TREATMENTS: MOTIVATIONAL INSTRUCTIONS ALONE, HYPNOTIC PROCEDURE WITH MOTIVATIONAL INSTRUCTIONS, AND IMAGINATION-CONTROL. COMPARISONS WERE MADE ACROSS INDEPENDENT GROUPS, EACH TESTED UNDER 1 TREATMENT, AND ALSO WITHIN THE SAME SS TESTED TWICE UNDER VARIOUS COMBINATIONS OF THE TREATMENTS. ALTHOUGH SS WERE SUGGESTIBLE UNDER THE IMAGINATION-CONTROL TREATMENT, BOTH THE MOTIVATIONAL INSTRUCTIONS ALONE AND THE HYPNOTIC PROCEDURE GIVEN TOGETHER WITH THE MOTIVATIONAL INSTRUCTIONS RAISED SUGGESTIBILITY ABOVE THE CONTROL LEVEL. THE HYPNOTIC-MOTIVATIONAL TREATMENT TENDED TO PRODUCE AN INCREMENT IN SUGGESTIBILITY WHICH WENT SLIGHTLY BEYOND THAT ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE MOTIVATIONAL INSTRUCTIONS. THE LATTER INCREMENT IS INTERPRETED AS DUE TO THE SLIGHTLY GREATER EFFECTIVENESS OF THE HYPNOTIC PROCEDURE IN DEFINING THE SITUATION AS ONE IN WHICH UNUSUAL MANIFESTATIONS, SUCH AS HALLUCINATION AND AMNESIA, ARE WITHIN SS'' CAPABILITIES AND DEFINITELY EXPECTED BY E. (SPANISH + GERMAN SUMMARIES) (23 REF.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Graham, K. R.; Patton, Ann (1968). Retroactive inhibition, hypnosis, and hypnotic amnesia. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 16, 68-74.
THE RELATIONSHIP OF HYPNOSIS AND POSTHYPNOTIC AMNESIA TO RETROACTIVE INHIBITION. 4 GROUPS OF 10 STUDENTS EACH LEARNED LISTS OF ADJECTIVES IN A RETROACTIVE INHIBITION PARADIGM. 2 GROUPS LEARNED THE INTERVENING LIST WHILE THEY WERE HYPNOTIZED. SS OF 1 OF THESE WERE GIVEN INSTRUCTIONS FOR POSTHYPNOTIC AMNESIA, WHILE SS OF THE OTHER WERE TOLD TO RECALL WHAT THEY HAD LEARNED UNDER HYPNOSIS. THE SAVINGS AND RECALL SCORES OF BOTH GROUPS FOR ITEMS OF THE ORIGINAL LIST WERE NOT DIFFERENT FROM A 3RD GROUP WHICH HAD LEARNED ALL 3 LISTS IN THE WAKING STATE. ALL GROUPS SHOWED SUBSTANTIAL RETROACTIVE INHIBITION WHEN COMPARED TO CONTROLS WHO HAD LEARNED NO INTERVENING LIST. (SPANISH + GERMAN ABSTRACTS) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
1966
Evans, Frederick J.; Thorn, Wendy A. (1966). Two types of posthypnotic amnesia: Recall amnesia and source amnesia. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 14 (2), 162-179.
Posthypnotic recall amnesia refers to S''s inability to recall, when challenged posthypnotically, the events which occurred during hypnosis. Posthypnotic source amnesia, occurs when S subsequently remembers the experiences of hypnosis, but has no recollection of acquiring the experiences. Data from 3 samples are presented to support the distinction between the 2 types of amnesia. Of 243 Ss, 18 experienced recall amnesia, 26 displayed source amnesia, but only 4 developed both kinds. There were no differences in rated depth of hypnosis of these 3 subgroups. Recall amnesia and source amnesia correlated .37, .38, and .39, respectively (p < .001) in the 3 samples. The evidence indicates the 2 types of amnesia are different phenomena. Similarities between source amnesia and certain (dissociative) normal and psychopathological memory processes are discussed. (Spanish & German summaries) (32 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
O'Connell, D. N. (1966). Selective recall of hypnotic susceptibility items: Evidence for repression or enhancement?. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 2, 150-161.
5 samples of Ss given initial standardized tests of hypnotic susceptibility were analyzed for posthypnotic item recall. All samples showed evidence of selective recall favoring passed items compared to failed items. 4 samples however, showed greater selectivity among the low-scoring Ss, contrary to previous report. This evidence is interpreted as favoring an interpretation of selective recall in terms of an enhancement rather than a repression model. Intersample differences in pattern of recall are stressed. (Spanish & German summaries) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Orne, Martin T. (1966). On the mechanisms of posthypnotic amnesia. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 2, 121-134.
Reviews experimental and clinical evidence about posthypnotic amnesia. 2 interpretations are contrasted which seem sharply opposed: (1) posthypnotic amnesia may be seen as essentially like any other hypnotically suggested experience. It can be considered as an explicitly or implicitly administered posthypnotic suggestion. (2) Amnesia can be viewed as a form of dissociation. 1 possible mechanism of such dissociation may be a basic difference of the structure of thought processes involved in hypnosis compared to those of normal waking experience. In this sense amnesia should occur independently of suggestion and be different in kind from most other hypnotic phenomena. The former mechanism may occur more frequently in experimental situations and the latter, in clinical contexts. (Spanish & German summaries) (25 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Stross, L. (1966). Impulse-defense implications in a case of amnesia. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 2, 89-103.
An 18-yr-old girl with a delinquent history leading to several suicide attempts and a fugue is described as she was observed during shifting phases of her amnesic syndrome. Using the case study as a research tool, it is suggested that alteration of ego state might be an archaic, primitive means of defense against relatively unneutralized, intense drives. More speculative are the propositions, generated from this case, that the ego could employ different defensive means with regard to libidinal and aggressive drives and that alteration of ego state might be a specific defense against aggression. (Spanish & German summaries) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
1965
Field, Peter B.; Evans, Frederick J.; Orne, Martin T. (1965). Order of difficulty of suggestions during hypnosis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 13, 183-192.
This study tests the hypothesis that successful response to suggestion during hypnosis predisposes to further successful response, but failure leads to subsequent failure. The Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility was administered to 2 groups of 51 volunteer students. For 1 group, 8 of the 12 items were administered in the order easy-to-difficult; for the 2nd group, in the order difficult-to-easy. Total and 8-item mean scores, and frequency distributions, did not differ significantly between groups. Except for the item measuring posthypnotic amnesia, item difficulties for the 2 groups did not differ significantly. Although the difficult-to-easy group was more amnesic, the 2 groups recalled a similar number of additional items when amnesia was "lifted." The block of 4 easier items was relatively easier when preceded by a block of 4 harder items and, similarly, the harder items were relatively less difficult if preceded by a block of easier items. The magnitude of this effect was small, and the order effect hypothesis was basically not supported. Future research should consider the S''s subjective impression of success and failure. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Hilgard, Ernest R.; Cooper, L. M. (1965). Spontaneous and suggested posthypnotic amnesia. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 13 (4), 261-274. (Abstracted in American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 1966, 1, 85)
This investigation was carried out to obtain comparable figures on the prevalence of spontaneous and suggested posthypnotic amnesia. 91 introductory psychology students were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups, and were required to serve as Ss for 2 consecutive days. The standard induction of the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form A was used on the 1st day, and that of Form B on the 2nd. Suggestibility items were then presented and served to appraise susceptibility and to test for amnesia. For 1 group, spontaneous amnesia was tested on the 1st day, and suggested amnesia on the 2nd day. This order was reversed for the 2nd group. Using as evidence of amnesia that 4 or fewer of the 10 possible items were recalled, 6 (7%) showed spontaneous amnesia on 1 of the 2 days, while a significantly larger number, 32 (35%), showed suggested amnesia. When the groups were subdivided on the basis of susceptibility scores, it was found that there is a marked advantage for suggested amnesia over spontaneous amnesia for highly susceptible hypnotic Ss, while this difference essentially disappears for low Ss. It was further found that (a) suggested amnesia is significantly greater than spontaneous amnesia whether or not 1 follows the other, (b) there is a small effect of the suggested posthypnotic amnesia for all levels of susceptibility, but this becomes pronounced with susceptibility scores of 6 and above, (c) the highly susceptible hypnotic Ss show no more spontaneous posthypnotic amnesia than do other Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
1960
Dorcus, Roy M. (1960). Recall under hypnosis of amnestic events. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 8 (1), 57-61.
NOTES 1:
The author reported on hypnosis work with eight cases, four dealing with attempts to recall misplaced or lost articles and four dealing with recall of information related to the commission of crimes. He concluded "that recall is not greatly improved under hypnosis. However, when strong emotional elements surround the events to be recalled some additional information may be secured" (p. 60).
The author reported on hypnosis work with eight cases, four dealing with attempts to recall misplaced or lost articles and four dealing with recall of information related to the commission of crimes. He concluded "that recall is not greatly improved under hypnosis. However, when strong emotional elements surround the events to be recalled some additional information may be secured" (p. 60).
1956
Dittborn, Julio M. (1956). Toward a semeiology of hypnosis. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 4 (1), 30-36.
"19 subjects were chosen among two hundred that in the year the experiment took place (1954) were to be 20 years old. 11 of these subjects qualified themselves as good swayers, whereas the 8 others were considered somehow refractory to the postural swaying test.
"All 19 went under a standard hypnotic induction: the operator employed the same words in all cases, and requested from all the execution of the same acts.
"Several involuntary signs of standard induction are described, which reveal that the subject has attained a convenient degree of muscular relaxation after appropriate suggestions.
"Fatigue is apparently an important source of spontaneous amnesia in good swayers.
"In the analyzed cases no involuntary sign has been detected, that could reveal us whether the inducted subject will or not present spontaneous post-hypnotic amnesia" (p. 36).
NOTES 1:
NOTES: Includes standardized tests of depth
NOTES: Includes standardized tests of depth
1954
Schneck, Jerome M. (1954). The divided personality: A case study aided by hypnosis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 2 (3), 220-232.
NOTES 1:
"Summary. Amnesia as a symptom assumes proportions more complex than would appear on the surface and the role of memory loss with specific reference to hypnotic recovery methods has been presented in several reports. Hypnotherapy would appear to be a preferred technique for resolving the symptom and at times for more extensive investigation of the underlying problems. The case reported now involved an extensive memory loss for past life, including personal identity. This was followed after nearly a year by recall and concurrent amnesia for the intervening time period. The latter amnesia was dispelled by recall at first under hypnosis and then by post-hypnotic extension and elaboration of the nuclear material. The patient's history was outlined and several facts of apparent importance in relation to the memory loss were revealed. The purposive and motivational features were stressed. Therapy was conducted in a medico-disciplinary setting with limitations based on administrative requirements. Military-legal complications of the patient's personality disorder and functioning were outlined. The concept of the divided personality was introduced and related to multiple personality and to another type of behavior which is quite similar to the divided personality except that periods of amnesia are not involved. The divided personality involves major cleavages in the continuity of living with amnesia and the establishment of the individual in a setting where he undergoes extensive, significant operations relating to work, general activities, and even courtship and marriage. Unlike the generally accepted attributes of multiple personality involving considerable overt behavior, affect, and attitude alterations, the divided personality continues to function with his accustomed overt attitudes, interests, affect, and method of relating on an interpersonal level. Descriptively and overtly he is not too different if at all, but he seems to begin life anew in terms of setting and personal contacts. Cases of this type should be studied further with care, whenever possible, for further elicidation [sic] of psychodynamics. Hypnosis as a tool in treatment and investigation should prove helpful and is to be considered important.
"Summary. Amnesia as a symptom assumes proportions more complex than would appear on the surface and the role of memory loss with specific reference to hypnotic recovery methods has been presented in several reports. Hypnotherapy would appear to be a preferred technique for resolving the symptom and at times for more extensive investigation of the underlying problems. The case reported now involved an extensive memory loss for past life, including personal identity. This was followed after nearly a year by recall and concurrent amnesia for the intervening time period. The latter amnesia was dispelled by recall at first under hypnosis and then by post-hypnotic extension and elaboration of the nuclear material. The patient's history was outlined and several facts of apparent importance in relation to the memory loss were revealed. The purposive and motivational features were stressed. Therapy was conducted in a medico-disciplinary setting with limitations based on administrative requirements. Military-legal complications of the patient's personality disorder and functioning were outlined. The concept of the divided personality was introduced and related to multiple personality and to another type of behavior which is quite similar to the divided personality except that periods of amnesia are not involved. The divided personality involves major cleavages in the continuity of living with amnesia and the establishment of the individual in a setting where he undergoes extensive, significant operations relating to work, general activities, and even courtship and marriage. Unlike the generally accepted attributes of multiple personality involving considerable overt behavior, affect, and attitude alterations, the divided personality continues to function with his accustomed overt attitudes, interests, affect, and method of relating on an interpersonal level. Descriptively and overtly he is not too different if at all, but he seems to begin life anew in terms of setting and personal contacts. Cases of this type should be studied further with care, whenever possible, for further elicidation [sic] of psychodynamics. Hypnosis as a tool in treatment and investigation should prove helpful and is to be considered important.
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