Posthypnotic amnesia: Suggestions of an active process in dissociative phenomena.

In a study with 62 undergraduates, a retroactive inhibition design was used to examine the process of posthypnotic amnesia. Ss were assigned to either a posthypnotic amnesia or a no-posthypnotic amnesia treatment group and were administered the 1st 11 items of the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale. Results support the notion that "forgotten" material is as available to amnesia Ss at some level as it is to nonamnesic Ss. Further, so-called forgetting appears to be the result of an active process, that is, something the S does. Implications for understanding dissociative phenomena in general are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)