Hypnosis as a retrieval cue in posthypnotic amnesia.

Tested the effectiveness of hypnosis as a retrieval cue in a group of 80 highly hypnotizable college students who demonstrated posthypnotic amnesia on an initial recall test. The 40 Ss who received a reinduction of hypnosis showed a significant improvement in memory on a retest; there was a significant loss of memory on a 3rd test following termination of the 2nd hypnosis and a more substantial recovery on a 4th test following administration of a prearranged reversibility cue. Another 40 Ss, who merely relaxed before the 2nd test, showed a similar improvement in memory on the retest but no subsequent memory loss. The amount of trial-to-trial improvement in memory shown by Ss was unaffected by explicit instructions to maintain amnesia until the reversibility cue had been given. It is concluded that posthypnotic amnesia is not a case of state-dependent retention, nor does hypnosis provide retrieval cues that can lead to the emergence of previously unrecalled memories. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Residual effect of suggestions for posthypnotic amnesia: A reexamination.

Despite the significant recovery of memory observed after suggestions for posthypnotic amnesia are canceled, there still remains an apparent deficit in total recall (after amnesia has been lifted) among Ss who show amnesia on initial testing. This effect, reported originally by E. R. Hilgard and L. S. Hommel (1961), was confirmed in analyses of recall data from groups of 691 and 488 volunteer college students (Exps I and II, respectively) who were administered a standardized, tape-recorded hypnotic procedure. Hypnotizable Ss who initially showed posthypnotic amnesia recalled significantly fewer items after amnesia was removed than did hypnotizable Ss who were initially nonamnesic. Further analysis showed that the residual amnesia effect was not an artifact of the very low level of posthypnotic recall performance shown by pseudoamnesic Ss, failure of memory storage due to such factors as inattention or sleep, or the differential time constraints on the memory reports of previously amnesic and nonamnesic Ss. Residual posthypnotic amnesia may reflect the fact that suggested posthypnotic amnesia, when lifted, takes time to fully dissipate. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A physiological investigation of volitional and nonvolitional experience during posthypnotic amnesia.

Highly responsive hypnotic Ss (43 undergraduates) 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 4 physiological measures—heart rate, electrodermal response, respiration rate, and muscle tension—during posthypnotic recall. Two contextual conditions were employed: One was meant to create pressure to breach posthypnotic amnesia (lie detector instructions) and the other, a relax condition, served as a control. The recall data showed that voluntary Ss under the lie detector condition recalled more than the other 3 samples that did not differ from each other. However, using another measure of voluntariness showed that both voluntary and involuntary Ss breached under lie detector conditions. Electrodermal responses supported Ss' reports of control in this case. Results are discussed as they relate to (a) studies attempting to breach posthypnotic amnesia, (b) the voluntary/involuntary classification of Ss, and (c) theories of hypnosis. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correction to Schuyler and Coe.

Reports an error in the original article A physiological investigation of volitional and nonvolitional experience during posthypnotic amnesia, by Bradley A. Schuyler and William C. Coe (Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, Vol 40[6], 1981[Jun], 1160-1169). The first sentence of the first paragraph in the second column of page 1166 incorrectly reads as follows: "Supporting the current postexperimental measure is the observation that voluntary subjects under lie detector conditions showed increased EDR [electrodermal response]." A correction to this statement is presented here. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1982-05171-001.) Highly responsive hypnotic Ss (43 undergraduates) 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 4 physiological measures--heart rate, electrodermal response, respiration rate, and muscle tension--during posthypnotic recall. Two contextual conditions were employed: One was meant to create pressure to breach posthypnotic amnesia (lie detector instructions) and the other, a relax condition, served as a control. The recall data showed that voluntary Ss under the lie detector condition recalled more than the other 3 samples that did not differ from each other. However, using another measure of voluntariness showed that both voluntary and involuntary Ss breached under lie detector conditions. Electrodermal responses supported Ss' reports of control in this case. Results are discussed as they relate to (a) studies attempting to breach posthypnotic amnesia, (b) the voluntary/involuntary classification of Ss, and (c) theories of hypnosis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Posthypnotic amnesia as disrupted retrieval.

Investigated the process of remembering during posthypnotic amnesia by exploring the organization of recalled material in Ss displaying only partial amnesia. During 3 standardized hypnosis scales (Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility and Forms B and C of the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale) suggestions of posthypnotic amnesia were administered to 112 male undergraduates. Hypnotizable Ss tended to recall the scale items in random chronological order, compared to the relatively sequential recall of insusceptible Ss. The difference in temporal sequencing of recall during amnesia indicates that, for the hypnotizable S, posthypnotic amnesia is characterized primarily by a disruption or disorganization of part of the recall process, leaving other aspects of memory processing relatively unimpaired. Results suggest a resolution of the apparent paradox between the subjective reports of amnesic Ss and the objective evidence that the apparently forgotten memories remain available for other cognitive operations. (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attempting to breach posthypnotic amnesia.

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 Hypnotic Susceptibility, 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. (49 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Restricted use of success cues in retrieval during posthypnotic amnesia.

Evaluated memory for successful and unsuccessful responses to hypnotic suggestions in partially amnesic Ss and in those Ss with normal forgetting. Two analyses (278 undergraduates) demonstrated that highly hypnotizable Ss experiencing partial posthypnotic amnesia tended to show no selective recall for their successes or failures during amnesia, whereas the remainder of the Ss showed definite selective recall of hypnotic success posthypnotically. These findings support F. J. Evans and J. F. Kihlstrom's (see record 1974-06307-001) hypothesis that posthypnotic amnesia involves a disruption of memory organization and suggest that the phenomenon may be mediated by a restriction in the use of normally employed retrieval cues. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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)     

Cognitive skill-training enhancement of hypnotizability: Generalization effects and trance logic responding.

Compared low-hypnotizable Ss who simulated hypnosis, underwent cognitive skill training, or served as no-treatment controls to Ss who scored as high hypnotizables without training (natural highs) on response to analgesia, age-regression, visual hallucination, selective amnesia, and posthypnotic suggestions. Ss 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 Ss 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 be adequately explained in terms of compliance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hypnotic dissociation, dichotic listening, and active versus passive modes of attention.

Describes 2 experiments with 75 high and low hypnotically susceptible Ss (Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility). Detecting left-channel targets interfered less with the shadowing of right-channel prose when performance of the former task was posthypnotically dissociated from consciousness. However, this superiority over an ordinary divided-attention condition was not due to unconscious target detection by Ss. Rather, the suggestions for posthypnotic responsiveness with amnesia apparently engendered a passive mode of attention to the left-channel task, such that Ss did not actively listen for targets in order to hear them. In Exp II, explicit instructions to adopt a strategy of attentional passivity to the target-detection task proved to be far more effective in producing the reduced-interference effect than the posthypnotic suggestions had been. The posthypnotic suggestions seemed to induce attentional passivity as an indirect effect of amnesia for the posthypnotic suggestions and for previously detected targets. Study findings are interpreted in terms of E. R. Hilgard's (1973) neodissociation theory. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recall and recognition memory during posthypnotic amnesia: A failure to confirm the disrupted-search hypothesis and the memory disorganization hypothesis.

Tested hypotheses that posthypnotic amnesia is characterized by a disruption in the memory search process and, more generally, by disorganization in memory retrieval. 141 undergraduates were administered the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scales, Forms B and C. Amnesia was assessed by the usual recall criterion and by a batch recognition-testing procedure. The disrupted-search hypothesis, tested by comparing the effects of the amnesia suggestion on recall and recognition, was not supported. The use of recognition items, rank ordered by Ss according to their judgment of order of administration, furnished data to test the memory disorganization hypothesis. In support of this hypothesis, analyses of the temporal rankings of recognized items revealed greater disorganization in the memory of Ss who were initially amnesic by recall criteria than those who were partially amnesic or nonamnesic. Nevertheless, other findings, including the fact that fewer than 50% of the initially amnesic Ss showed disorganized recognition and that the disorganization effect during recall was weak and inconsistent, call into question the explanatory power of this hypothesis. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Increasing contextual pressures to breach posthypnotic amnesia.

The study investigated conditions that produce strong social pressures on posthypnotically amnesic Ss to remember more before being given the cue to remove amnesia. Highly susceptible Ss who passed posthypnotic amnesia were classified as voluntary or involuntary (having high or low control over recall). Test Ss were serially subjected to 3 pressure situations before being given the cue to lift amnesia: (a) instructions to be honest, (b) lie detection, and (c) a replay of a video of the session. Control Ss sat for the same amount of time and were only asked if they could remember anything else while the experimental Ss received pressure recalls. All but 1 S breached in the experimental condition. Only the voluntary Ss breached in the control condition. Results are discussed as they relate to breaching amnesia and the voluntary dimension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Electrodermal measures in experimental amnesia.

14 Ss equated with respect to hypnotizability were subjected to electrodermal orienting response (OR) adaptation to tone stimulation. ? the Ss were hypnotized, ? were not. Adaptation of the OR was conducted under hypnosis, with suggestion of amnesia both under hypnosis and as a posthypnotic suggestion. The control group yielded progressive adaptation curves, while "amnesia" produced a lifting of the adaptation. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temporal organization of recall during posthypnotic amnesia.

Amnesia suggestions were administered to 35 undergraduates of low, medium, and high hypnotic susceptibility (the Stanford Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility—Form C) who had learned a word list while hypnotized. The method encouraged Ss to organize the words sequentially. Organization of recall was measured on recall trials conducted before, during, and after suggested amnesia. Highly hypnotizable Ss showed a breakdown in temporal organization during amnesia, followed by a recovery of this organization after the suggestion was canceled. Results suggest that posthypnotic amnesia involves a disruption in the contextual relationships among memory items. Findings are discussed in the context of models that construe memory as a network of modes representing concepts and associative links between them. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The repression hypothesis studied in a situation of hypnotically induced conflict.

"Through hypnotic induction and control of conflict and degree of awareness, five experimental conditions were produced: (a) preconflict control; (b) conflict with posthypnotic amnesia for the situation; (c) conflict with partial posthypnotic amnesia; (d) conflict with full awareness; and (e) postconflict control. Eight measures of response to a word-association test administered by the Luria method were obtained for six Ss. Each S was tested in the waking state under the five experimental conditions. For the Ss as a group it was demonstrated that (a) there was a conflict; (b) there was a progressive increase in degree of awareness; and (c) most of the measures of behavior reflected emotional disturbance with some validity." (25 ref.) From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:1HJ04B. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contextual forgetting: Posthypnotic source amnesia.

Notes that posthypnotic source amnesia (SA) involves recall of information recently learned during hypnosis without recollection of how the information was acquired. SA occurs when, posthypnotically, an S gives the correct answer to a question like, "An amethyst is a blue or purple gemstone: What color does it become when exposed to heat?" The correct answer seems to pop into the S's mind and he or she does not remember just learning it during hypnosis. SA occurred in 4 of 12 deeply hypnotized totally amnesic Ss but not in 15 unhypnotizable simulating Ss tested by a "blind" experimenter. (Ss were selected by use of the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility and the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale.) SA also occurred with 31% of 29 deeply hypnotized amnesic Ss in a nonblind experiment. Results show that amnesia cannot be attributed to subtle aspects of the experimental procedure nor to a partial failure of posthypnotic amnesia. SA may provide a model to help understand aspects of several normal and pathological contextual memory disruptions including plagiarism, flashbulb memories, clinical amnesia, the development of phobic states, and other related processes in which there is an apparent dissociation between the content of accessible memories and the context in which the episodic events originally occurred. In SA, Ss know, but do not know how or why they know. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Volitional experiences associated with breaching posthypnotic amnesia.

40 highly responsive hypnotic undergraduates were selected on the basis of the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility—Form A and were classified as having control over remembering (voluntaries) or not having control over remembering (involuntaries) during posthypnotic amnesia. Ss rerated their voluntariness after the experiment. Two contextual conditions were employed: a lie detector condition meant to create pressure to breach amnesia and a relaxation control condition. In contrast to earlier findings, the recall data show that both voluntary and involuntary Ss breached under the lie detector condition compared with their counterparts in the relaxation condition, although the degree of breaching was not great in any condition. Results are discussed as they relate to studies attempting to breach posthypnotic amnesia and to characteristics of the voluntary–involuntary dimension. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some characteristics of posthypnotic amnesia.

This experiment investigated (a) the differences in post-hypnotic amnesic characteristics of Ss with high and low hypnotic susceptibility and (b) the extent of the amnesia. The experimental Ss were presented 6 words under hypnosis with instructions for amnesia. The simulation Ss pretended they were hypnotized and received the words with instructions for posthypnotic amnesia. The control Ss were given the words with instructions only to remember them. Recognition, recall, and associative tests, administered immediately after, assessed the amnesia. Posthypnotic amnesia impaired recall and recognition among the experimental Ss, but did not reduce the availability of the words as associative responses. The simulating Ss overplayed their amnesic role and also showed impaired performance on the associative tests. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temporal sequencing during posthypnotic amnesia: A methodological critique.

In studies by F. J. Evans and J. F. Kihlstrom, (1973, 1975, 1979), using the susceptibility-scale paradigm, high susceptibles (HSs) were less likely than low susceptibles (LSs) 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 1st item. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Suggested amnesia and disorganized recall in hypnotic and task-motivated subjects.

Submitted 52 undergraduates to task motivation or hypnotic treatment. Ss were then given an amnesia suggestion for a previously learned list of categorized words. The number of words recalled and the extent to which they were recalled in clusters were compared before, during, and after lifting the amnesia suggestion. Results show that more hypnotic Ss than task-motivated Ss showed amnesia. Furthermore, hypnotic Ss, but not task-motivated Ss, showed less clustering during the suggestion than they did before or after the suggestion. The Ss who showed at least partial failure to recall during the suggestion were classified into 3 groups: (a) those who remembered but did not verbalize the words, (b) those who experienced amnesia as an effortful process involving distraction or forceful suppression, and (c) those who simply relaxed and experienced amnesia as an effortless process. A theoretical model is tentatively advanced to account for these data. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)