Hypnosis,Human Nature,and Complexity: Integrating Neuroscience Approaches into Hypnosis Research

Hypnosis research has contributed much to the understanding of human behavior and experience, both normal and abnormal. This paper considers ways in which neuroscience approaches may be integrated into hypnosis research to continue and enhance that contribution, as well as further reveal the nature of hypnosis itself. The authors review the influences on and advances in hypnosis research over the last century; illustrate the investigative value of hypnosis to selected phenomena across the areas of doing, feeling, believing, and remembering; and specify elements for the successful integration of neuroscience approaches into hypnosis research. The authors believe that hypnosis research offers powerful techniques to isolate psychological processes in ways that allow their neural bases to be mapped. Successful integration will be achieved when researchers add levels of explanation, rather than shift the emphasis from one level or feature to another.     

Hypnosis,Attention, and Time Cognition

This study examined the influence of hypnotic susceptibility (high vs. low), hypnotic condition (hypnotic vs. nonhypnotic), and attentional demands (high vs. low) on the verbal estimates (N = 510 undergraduates) of 30- and 60-second time intervals under both prospective (aware of timing) and retrospective (unaware of timing) paradigms. It was expected that prospective judgments would be greater than retrospective judgments across all factors. Consistent with existing literature, strong support was found for this hypothesis. Hypotheses generated within the trait-state paradigm were not supported. No effects were found for hypnotic susceptibility in any form. Partial support was found for the sociocognitive model. The hypnotic context, independent of level of susceptibility, apparently utilizes the attentional resources of participants and as a by-product leads to underestimation of time. Longer time intervals (60s) were also underestimated in comparison to shorter intervals (30s).     

Hypnosis, attention, and time cognition

This study examined the influence of hypnotic susceptibility (high vs. low), hypnotic condition (hypnotic vs. nonhypnotic), and attentional demands (high vs. low) on the verbal estimates (N = 510 undergraduates) of 30- and 60-second time intervals under both prospective (aware of timing) and retrospective (unaware of timing) paradigms. It was expected that prospective judgments would be greater than retrospective judgments across all factors. Consistent with existing literature, strong support was found for this hypothesis. Hypotheses generated within the trait-state paradigm were not supported. No effects were found for hypnotic susceptibility in any form. Partial support was found for the sociocognitive model. The hypnotic context, independent of level of susceptibility, apparently utilizes the attentional resources of participants and as a by-product leads to underestimation of time. Longer time intervals (60 s) were also underestimated in comparison to shorter intervals (30 s).     

Hypnosis, memory, and frontal executive functioning

According to the dissociated-control hypothesis forwarded by Woody and Bowers (1994), the effects of hypnosis are consistent with attenuated frontal lobe functioning. The present study was designed to compare the performance of participants with high and low hypnotic ability on a variety of memory tasks thought to be sensitive to frontal lobe functioning, as well as some control memory tasks not considered to be sensitive to such functioning. Results generally indicated that participants with high hypnotic ability have more difficulty with tasks sensitive to frontal lobe functioning, including free recall, proactive interference, and source amnesia tasks, both within and outside of the context of hypnosis. These differences, which were not found for nonfrontal tasks, are generally supportive of the dissociated control theory of hypnotic responding.     

The Fox,the Hedgehog,and Hypnosis

Isaiah Berlin’s contrast between the fox, who “knows many things,” and the hedgehog, who “knows one big thing,” is the starting point for a consideration of monolithic and pluralistic approaches to hypnosis.     

The Maudsley Personality Inventory,Suggestibility, and Hypnosis

Furneaux and Gibson (1961) have reported that stable extraverts and neurotic introverts were more susceptible to hypnotic suggestion than neurotic extraverts and stable introverts, using the Maudsley Personality Inventory (MPI) dimensions.

Using data supplied by Thorn (1960), these results are not confirmed at a satisfactory level of significance. However, some trends in the data, significant at better than 20 level, are discussed:

(a) The Furneaux and Gibson conclusions hold for waking suggestibility only if “liars” are not included in the analysis; otherwise body sway may be separately related to non-neuroticism and introversion.

(b) Hypnotic suggestibility is unrelated to these dimensions; however, if “liars” are omitted, neurotics are slightly more prone than others.

(c) Independent hypnotic factors of suggestibility and imagery are unrelated to MPI measures, but dissociation (amnesia) is most marked in stable introverts, least evident with stable extraverts.     

Hypnosis,hypnotic responsiveness,and learning meaningful material

3 antecedent conditions were compared for their ability to enhance recall of meaningful material. The conditions were as follows: (a) group hypnotic instruction followed by posthypnotic suggestions of enhanced concentration and recall ability, (b) task motivation instructions to Ss to imagine and try their best, and (c) no special instructions (control). No differences in recall ability were found among the conditions. Also, high and low susceptible Ss performed essentially the same. The findings have implications for applied hypnosis and suggest that further study is indicated to clarify the usefulness of hypnosis for enhancing learning ability.     

催眠与记忆

目的:催眠记忆增强是由于被催眠者在回忆时,重复记忆已经学习过的材料的结果,而不是催眠真的能使人的记忆增强。催眠增强记忆是从记忆库中调出已经存在的记忆,而不是增加记忆。本文旨在综述催眠和记忆的关系。资料来源:应用计算机检索ProQuestPsychologyJournal1990-01/2005-08与催眠相关的文章,检索词“hypnosisandpsychology,memory”,限定文章语言种类为English;另外应用计算机检索中国期刊全文数据库1995-01/2005-08与催眠相关的文章,检索词为“催眠,记忆”。限定文章语言种类为中文。另查阅相关专著若干。资料选择:对资料进行初审,选择与催眠和记忆研究相关的文章,纳入标准:对催眠以及催眠的历史进行详细阐述的、催眠与记忆的相关研究。排除标准:排除文献中重复的研究。对符合要求的文章再查阅全文。资料提炼:在收集的25篇文献中,排除8篇重复性研究,其余17篇进行分类整理,用于综述,其中14篇选为参考文献,心理学专著3部。资料综合:催眠的历史悠久,埃及、巴比伦、罗马、玛雅等民族都有曾使用催眠治疗疾病的历史。在心理学中,有关催眠、催眠与记忆存在着一些争议。对于催眠的定义不同的学者有不同的看法;催眠是介于觉醒与催眠之间的心理状态,催眠者的暗示诱导使被催眠意识处于积极而活跃的状态,使潜意识中的大量信息被重新组合。催眠记忆增强不可能增加人们的记忆,催眠记忆增强是由于被催眠者试图重复记忆相同的材料的结果。催眠记忆中,被催眠者容易出现记忆错误与对自己催眠后回忆起来的错误信息过分自信。结论:催眠记忆增强中所说的记忆是指对已经学习过的信息回忆的增强,而不是说催眠能够增加人们的记忆,帮助人们学习新信息。在催眠记忆增强中容易出现记忆错误以及被催眠者对催眠中的记忆错误过分自信,而记忆错误的信息可能对那些用催眠获取信息的事件产生一些问题,因此在刑事案件中使用催眠时应该慎重。     

催眠与记忆

目的：催眠记忆增强是由于被催眠者在回忆时，重复记忆已经学习过的材料的结果，而不是催眠真的能使人的记忆增强。催眠增强记忆是从记忆库中调出已经存在的记忆，而不是增加记忆。本文旨在综述催眠和记忆的关系。 资料来源：应用计算机检索ProQuest Psychology Journal 1990-01／2005-08与催眠相关的文章，检索词“hypnosis and psychology，memory”，限定文章语言种类为English；另外应用计算机检索中国期刊全文数据库1995-01／2005-08与催眠相关的文章，检索词为“催眠，记忆”。限定文章语言种类为中文。另查阅相关专著若干。 资料选择：对资料进行初审，选择与催眠和记忆研究相关的文章，纳入标准：对催眠以及催眠的历史进行详细阐述的、催眠与记忆的相关研究。排除标准：排除文献中重复的研究。对符合要求的文章再查阅全文。 资料提炼：在收集的25篇文献中，排除8篇重复性研究，其余17篇进行分类整理，用于综述，其中14篇选为参考文献，心理学专著3部。 资料综合：催眠的历史悠久，埃及、巴比伦、罗马、玛雅等民族都有曾使用催眠治疗疾病的历史。在心理学中，有关催眠、催眠与记忆存在着一些争议。对于催眠的定义不同的学者有不同的看法；催眠是介于觉醒与催眠之间的心理状态，催眠者的暗示诱导使被催眠意识处于积极而活跃的状态，使潜意识中的大量信息被重新组合。催眠记忆增强不可能增加人们的记忆，催眠记忆增强是由于被催眠者试图重复记忆相同的材料的结果。催眠记忆中，被催眠者容易出现记忆错误与对自己催眠后回忆起来的错误信息过分自信。 结论：催眠记忆增强中所说的记忆是指对已经学习过的信息回忆的增强，而不是说催眠能够增加人们的记忆，帮助人们学习新信息。在催眠记忆增强中容易出现记忆错误以及被催眠者对催眠中的记忆错误过分自信，而记忆错误的信息可能对那些用催眠获取信息的事件产生一些问题，因此在刑事案件中使用催眠时应该慎重。     

Amnesia and Hypnosis

The present study explored the relative effects of 2 factors (3 levels of measured hypnotic susceptibility and 3 kinds of motivation procedures) on short-term memory for a paired associate learning task. 36 Ss were stratified, according to their HGSHS:A scores (Shor & E. Ome, 1962), into 3 groups (low, medium, and high susceptibility) 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 (hypnotic, waking, or waking non motivational) in which suggestions of amnesia for a recently learned paired associate task were given. Generally, 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”.     

Causal attribution,coping strategies,and learned helplessness

This study assesses the intervening role of coping strategies in mediating the effects of causal attribution for failure, expectancy of control, and off-task cognitions on performance. In study 1, a preliminary investigation, subjects were asked to recall a failure and then to report its major cause and how they coped with it. In study 2, subjects reported their habitual attributional style for negative events and were exposed to failure. Then their expectancy of control, off-task cognitions, coping strategies, and performance were assessed. Results showed that problem-focused coping was associated with less stable/global attribution for failure and with higher expectancy of control. Emotion-focused coping and distancing coping were associated with more internal/global/stable attribution for failure and more frequent off-task cognitions. In addition, distancing coping was found to have a direct effect on performance and to mediate performance effects of causal attribution. The results were discussed in terms of the Lazarus and Folkman stress-coping model.     

Hypnosis,Memory, And Frontal Executive Functioning

According to the dissociated-control hypothesis forwarded by Woody and Bowers (1994), the effects of hypnosis are consistent with attenuated frontal lobe functioning. The present study was designed to compare the performance of participants with high and low hypnotic ability on a variety of memory tasks thought to be sensitive to frontal lobe functioning, as well as some control memory tasks not considered to be sensitive to such functioning. Results generally indicated that participants with high hypnotic ability have more difficulty with tasks sensitive to frontal lobe functioning, including free recall, proactive interference, and source amnesia tasks, both within and outside of the context of hypnosis. These differences, which were not found for nonfrontal tasks, are generally supportive of the dissociated control theory of hypnotic responding.     

Mindfulness,Acceptance, and Hypnosis: Cognitive and Clinical Perspectives

The authors propose that hypnosis and mindfulness-based approaches can be used in tandem to create adaptive response sets and to deautomatize maladaptive response sets. They summarize recent research on the effectiveness of mindfulness-based approaches in clinical and nonclinical contexts and propose that the cognitive underpinnings of mindfulness approaches can be conceptualized in terms of the metacognitive basis of mindful attention, Toneatto’s elucidation of the Buddhist perspective on cognition, and Kirsch and Lynn’s response-set theory. They also suggest that mindfulness can serve as a template for generating an array of suggestions that provides cognitive strategies to contend with problems in living and to ameliorate stress and negative affect more generally. Many of the ideas the authors advance are speculative and are intended to spur additional research and clinical work.     

Hypnosis,Delayed Recall,and the Principles of Memory

This article reviews the seven principles of memory function that set limits on the degree to which any attempt to recover a long-forgotten memory can succeed: encoding, organization, time dependency, cue dependency, encoding specificity, schematic processing, and reconstruction. In the absence of independent corroboration, there is no “litmus test” that can reliably distinguish true from false memories, or memories that are based on perception from those that are based on imagination. Practicing clinicians should exercise great caution when using hypnosis or any other technique to facilitate delayed recall.