“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).
Geiselman, R. Edward; Fisher, Ronald P.; MacKinnon, David P.; Holland, Heidi L. (1985). Eyewitness memory enhancement in the police interview: Cognitive retrieval mnemonics versus hypnosis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 70, 401-412.
Compared effectiveness of three interview procedures for optimizing eyewitness memory performance: (a) the ‘cognitive interview” based on memory-retrieval mnemonics from current memory theory, (b) the presently controversial hypnosis interview, and (c) the standard (control) police interview. Both the cognitive and hypnosis procedures elicited a significantly greater number of correct items of information from the Ss than did the standard interview. This result, which held even for the most critical facts from the films, was most pronounced for crime scenarios in which the density of events was high. The number of incorrect items of information generated did not differ across the three interview conditions. The observed memory
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.
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.
1983
Crawford, Helen J.; Allen, Steven N. (1983). Enhanced visual memory during hypnosis as mediated by hypnotic responsiveness and cognitive strategies. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 112 (4), 662-685.
To investigate the hypothesis that hypnosis has an enhancing effect on imagery processing, as mediated by hypnotic responsiveness and cognitive strategies, four experiments compared performance of low and high, or low, medium, and high hypnotically responsive subjects in waking and hypnosis conditions on a successive visual memory discrimination task that required detecting differences between successively presented picture pairs in which one member of the pair was slightly altered. Consistently, hypnotically responsive individuals showed enhanced mean number of correct performance during hypnosis, whereas nonresponsive ones did not. Hypnotic responsiveness correlated .52 (p < .001) with enhanced performance during hypnosis, but it was uncorrelated with waking performance (Experiment 3). Reaction time was not affected by hypnosis, although high hypnotizables were faster than lows in their responses (Experiments 1 and 2). Subjects reported enhanced imagery vividness on the self-report Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire during hypnosis. The differential effect between lows and highs was in the anticipated direction but not significant (Experiments 1 and 2). Two cognitive strategies appeared to mediate visual memory performance: (a) detail strategy (memorization and rehearsal of individual details) and (b) holistic strategy (looking at and remembering the whole picture with accompanying imagery). Both lows and highs reported predominantly detail-oriented strategies during waking; however the highs shifted to a more holistic strategy during hypnosis. It appears that high hypnotizables have a greater capacity than lows for cognitive flexibility (Battig, 1979). Results are discussed in terms of Paivio's (1971) dual coding theory and Craik and Tulving's (1975) depth of processing theory. The authors also discuss whether hypnosis involves a shift in cerebral dominance, as reflected by the cognitive strategy changes and enhanced imagery processing. 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 do not interact with other information in memory. 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, Randolph D.; Shor, Ronald E. (1983). Spontaneous recovery of memory during posthypnotic amnesia. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 31, 309-323. 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. by hypnotic suggestion 1981 Bower, Gordon H. (1981). Mood and memory. American Psychologist, 129-148. This article describes experiments in which happy or sad moods were induced in subjects by hypnotic suggestion to investigate the influence of emotions on memory and thinking. One result was that subjects exhibited mood-state-dependent memory in recall of word lists, personal experiences recorded in a daily diary, and childhood experiences; people recalled a greater percentage of those experiences that were affectively congruent with the mood they were in during recall. Second, emotion powerfully influenced such cognitive processes as free associations, imaginative fantasies, social perceptions, and snap judgments about others' personalities (e.g., angry subjects generated angry associates, told hostile stories, and were prone to find fault with others). Third, when the feeling-tone of a narrative agreed with the reader's emotion, the salience and memorability of events in that narrative were increased. Thus, sad readers attended more to sad material, identified with a sad character from a story, and recalled more about that character. An associative network theory is proposed to account for these several results. In this theory, an emotion serves as a memory unit that can enter into associations with coincident events. Activation of this emotion unit aids retrieval of events associated with it; it also primes emotional themata for use in free association, fantasies, and perceptual categorization. 1979 Cole, Randy D. (1979). Use of hypnosis in a course to increase academic and test-taking skills. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 27 (1), 21-28. The present study was undertaken to provide additional information on the effects of hypnosis on academic and test-taking skills. Previous research indicated inconclusive results with inadequate experimental design and statistical methodology. The present study used an experimental research design with appropriate statistical analysis. Ss were 93 college students and treatment was administered by pre-recorded cassette tapes over a 4-week period during regular class time. Tapes consisted of hypnotic and waking suggestions related to course content and general academic skills. Results indicated hypnotic and waking suggestions did not faciltate academic skill learning significantly more than class curriculum alone. Pre-post comparisons did indicate significant improvement by all groups on reading, writing, study skills, and spelling variables. Holroyd, Jean; Nuechterlein, Keith; Shapiro, David; Ward, Frederick (1979). Biofeedback and hypnotizability. In Burrows, Graham D.; Collison, David R. (Ed.), Hypnosis 1979: Proceedings of the 8th International Congress of Hypnosis and Psychosomatic Medicine, Melbourne, Australia (pp. 335-343). New York: Elsevier/North Holland Biomedical Press. 8 high and 8 low hypnotizable Ss used biofeedback and hypnosis to lower blood pressure in one session and forehead EMG activity in another session. Results were analyzed by repeated measures analyses of covariance using baseline physiological level on the dependent variable as the covariate. Electromyographic level was reduced more immediately by biofeedback than by hypnosis. When the task was to lower blood pressure, blood pressure and skin conductance were more effectively reduced by hypnosis than by biofeedback, considering only the first half of each session to eliminate within- session transfer effects. Hypnotizability did not predict overall outcome. Factors which may have prevented demonstrating a clearer relationship between hypnotizability and success using biofeedback or hypnosis are discussed. State and trait anxiety, cognitive strategies used during the tasks, and self-reported hypnotic depth are examined for correlates of successful performance. 1977 Chertok, Leon; Michaux, D.; Droin, M. C. (1977). Dynamics of hypnotic analgesia: Some new data. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 164, 88-96. 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. Delprato, D. J. (1977). Pavlovian conditioning of Chevreul's movement. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 20, 124-130. 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. Garver, R. B. (1977). Enhancement of human-performance through neuro-motor facilitation and control of arousal level. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 19, 177-181. 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. Erickson, Milton H.; Rossi, Ernest L. (1976). Two level communication and microdynamics of trance and suggestion. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 18, 153-171. The authors provide the transcript and commentaries of an hypnotic induction and an effort to achieve automatic writing. An unusual blend of Erickson's approaches to two level communication, dissociation, voice dynamics and indirect suggestion are made explicit in the commentaries. The junior author offers a 'context theory of two level communication' that conceptualizes Erickson's clinical approaches in terms consonant with Jenkins' (1974) recent contextual approach to verbal associations and memory. A summary of the microdynamics of Erickson's approach to trance induction and suggestion is outlined togetehr with a utilization theory of hypnotic suggestion. Jenkins, J. J. (1974). Remember that old theory of memory? Well, forget it! American Psychologist, 29, 785-795. Psychologist, 29, 785-795. Illovsky, J.; Fredman, N. (1976). Group suggestion in learning disabilities of primary grade children. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 24, 87-97. This study reports the effects of tape-recorded hypnotic suggestions given to 48 hyperactive children between the ages of 6 and 8 from 3 public schools. The children had short attention spans, low frustration and tolerance [sic], and poor learning motivation. They were taught by the same method in class and received remedial instruction as in the previous year. In order to participate in this study, the children were brought from their regular classrooms every morning to listen in groups of 9, 10, or 19 -- according to the available accommodation in the school -- to suggestions of relaxation, to ideas of coping with emotional problems, and to suggestions of modifying attitudes towards learning. The corrective reading teachers conducted these 15-minute sessions. After the session was over, the children were returned to their respective classes. At the beginning and at the end of the school year, the classroom teachers evaluated the children's behavior in class and their attitudes toward learning. The addition of the modified hypnotic technique enabled 45 of 48 children to function better in school. The improvement ranged from decreased hyperactivity to better than average performance in class. Significant correlations were found between percent of relaxation with increased attention span (r = .40) and number of sessions attended with increased self-confidence (r = .46). Johnson, R. F. Q. (1976). Hypnotic time distortion and the enhancement of learning: New data pertinent to the Krauss-Katzell-Drauss experiment. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 19, 98-102. Krauss, Katzell, and Krauss (1974) reported that free-recall learning can be markedly enhanced by suggestions given under hypnosis that three minutes of study time is equivalent to 10 minutes of study time. The present investigation, which incorporated features similar to the Krauss et al. study, did not yield similar results. Subjects learned a comparable number of words for a comparable amount of study time, regardless of whether they were exposed to hypnotic time distortion instructions, special motivating instructions, or control instructions. The results are discussed in terms of general problems in modern research on hypnotism. 1975 Cowings, Patricia S. (1975, September). Observed differences in learning ability of heart rate self-regulation as a function of hypnotic susceptibility. [Paper] Presented at the 3rd Congress of the International College of Psychosomatic Medicine, Rome. Three groups of eight men and women were given personality tests and were taught to control their own heart rates. Experimental group I and the control group had low hypnotic susceptibility (Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale), and subjects in experimental group II had high hypnotic susceptibility. The experimental groups received autogenic therapy and biofeedback, while the control group was given biofeedback only. Subjects who received autogenic therapy and biofeedback performed better than the control group. Significant differences, however, were found in all psychological test scores between high and low hypnotic susceptibles. Cedercrentz, C. (1972). The big mistakes: A note. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 20, 15-16. In his book, A System of Medical Hypnosis, Ainslie Meares writes, "Most books on hypnosis, from Bernheim to the present time, devote a great deal of space to the description of successful and dramatic cures. These accounts may be of prestige value to the author, and may do something to inform the profession of the potential value of hypnosis in medicine, but these success stories are really of little help to those who would learn the technique of hypnotherapy because the emphasis is always on the success of the treatment rather than on anlysis of the psychodynamic mechanisms which brought it abauot. As in everything else, we learn most from a study of our failures [p. 3]." These comments remain as true today as they were ten years ago. With the notable exception of Meares, few colleagues have been willing to share their errors, allowing us to profit from their experience. Thus, when Dr. Cedercreutz sent along a note describing his experience with one of his patients, I was struck by his generosity, and it seemed most appropriate for all of us to share his experience by way of the Journal. Hopefully, this may encourage other colleagues to share their failures as well as their successes so that all of us may learn to be more effective therapists and better scientists. M.T.O. [Martin Orne] The case reported involves a patient who had migraine headache removed with hypnosis, but later developed gastrointestinal symptoms that were operated surgically with absence of positive (physical) pathology noted. Subsequent investigation of the psychological component of the problem with hypnosis revealed an early trauma (seeing a soldier killed with a bayonette) that led to migraine-like pain in the head and vomiting. 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 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) 1968 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 Edmonston, William E., Jr.; Stanke, F. James (1966). The effects of hypnosis and meaningfulness of material on verbal learning. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 8 (4), 257-260. Results: "The number of trials to criterion for each subject was analyzed in a two-way analysis of variance. The analysis indicates that hypnosis does not significantly effect the learning process. A significant difference does appear between the acquisition of high and low meaning words, the former being learned more rapidly. Also there are no interaction effects between hypnosis and the meaningfulness level of the material to be learned. The apparent gain of the hypnosis-low meaning over the nonhypnosis-low- meaning group is not statistically significant (t = 1.53; p. 20)" (p. 258). 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) 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) LeCron, Leslie M. (1963). Uncovering early memories by ideomotor responses to questioning. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 11, 137-142. The author argues for the veridicality of birth and prenatal memories elicited by hypnosis, and in any event states they are therapeutically useful fantasies. He also advocates use of ideomotor signalling as a means of access to unconscious material. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved) Dorcus, Roy M. (1960). Recall under hypnosis of amnestic events. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 8 (1), 57-61. 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). 1954 Hammer, Emanuel Frederick (1954). Post-hypnotic suggestion and test performance. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 2, 178-185 College students were tested in Normal and Post-hypnotic suggestion conditions, in balanced order (N-P-P-N, or P-N-N-P) but were actually hypnotized before the Normal as well as the Post-hypnotic trials (i.e. without and with post-hypnotic suggestions, with suggestions for amnesia for the events in the hypnotic state). "Summary. The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether or not post-hypnotic suggestion can improve some aspects of hypnotizable students' application and efficiency as applied to a number of selected performances connected directly or indirectly to schoolwork. Before the post-hypnotic testing periods, each subject was given post-hypnotic suggestions of ease, confidence, motivation, and increased ability. The study consisted of a comparison of normal and post-hypnotic performances of nine subjects in the areas of motor capacity, attention and perception, association, learning and memory, speed of reading comprehension, and application of abstract ability. To the extent to which psychomotor speed and endurance, physical fatigue, span and duration of attention, clerical performance, speed of learning (as tested by Meaningful Syllable Lists and Digit Symbol Substitution), speed of association, mental alertness, concentration, mental efficiency, application of abstract number abilities, and speed of reading comprehension are related to schoolwork, the hypothesis is supported that post-hypnotic suggestion can be of aid in hypnotizable college students' schoolwork" (p. 184). Guze, Henry (1953). Posture, postural redintegration and hypnotherapy. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 1, 76-82. (Abstracted in Psychological Abstracts 53: 6559) The use of postural analysis, and directives regarding posture and their importance in hypnotherapy are discussed. Theoretically, it is indicated that a chronic postural condition may act to elicit an emotional state with which it was originally associated. Such an emotional condition may have caused the posture in the first place, and then established a feed-back relationship with it. The breaking of feed-back mechanisms of this kind depends largely upon postural change when a chronic situation is established in the absence of realistic cause for the emotion. Posture may also act redintegratively, when directly suggested, in rearousing traumatic memories. Several clinical cases are reported. Mental retardation 1991 Kunzendorf, Robert G.; Beltz, Susan McLaughlin; Tymowicz, Gina (1991-92). Self-awareness in autistic subjects and deeply hypnotized subjects: Dissociation of self-concept versus self-consciousness. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 11, 129-141. By refining past tests of self-awareness in mirrors, current testing demonstrates that autistic subjects' percepts are dissociated from self-concept, whereas hypnotized subjects' sensations are dissociated from self-consciousness. In the current test of self-concept, subjects could not _directly_ see a line inside the box on their lap, but subjects could see the line _indirectly_ in a televised mirror image. When instructed to touch the line, autistic subjects reached towards the televised line, whereas nonautistic subjects reached towards the actual line occluded inside the box. This first result suggests that the autistic subject's visual percept of the televised line is dissociated from its spatial relationship to the subject's self-concept. In the current test of self-consciousness, subjects were told to use a televised mirror-image to move their hands together until touching, but were not told that they were actually seeing a pre-recorded tape of their hands struggling unsuccessfully to touch. When queried, hypnotized subjects denied that their tactually joined hands were touching, whereas nonhypnotized subjects confirmed that their hands were touching. This latter result suggests that the hypnotized subject's hand-touching sensations are dissociated from the immediate and incontrovertible self-consciousness _that one is perceiving the hands touching (not imaging them touching)_. 1977 Lazar, Billie S. (1977). Hypnotic imagery as a tool in working with a cerebral palsied child. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 25 (2), 78-87. Hypnotic imagery ws used with a moderately severe athetoid cerebral palsied 12-year-old boy who was mildly retarded and a poor hypnotic subject. Techniques included imagery, observation of the self, revivification of relaxing experiences, proprioceptive feedback about the athetoid movements, and dealing with feelings and motivation. Athetoid movements were reduced, results extended beyond the treatment situation, and improvement was made in practical skills. 1976 Illovsky, J.; Fredman, N. (1976). Group suggestion in learning disabilities of primary grade children. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 24, 87-97. This study reports the effects of tape-recorded hypnotic suggestions given to 48 hyperactive children between the ages of 6 and 8 from 3 public schools. The children had short attention spans, low frustration and tolerance [sic], and poor learning motivation. They were taught by the same method in class and received remedial instruction as in the previous year. In order to participate in this study, the children were brought from their regular classrooms every morning to listen in groups of 9, 10, or 19 -- according to the available accommodation in the school -- to suggestions of relaxation, to ideas of coping with emotional problems, and to suggestions of modifying attitudes towards learning. The corrective reading teachers conducted these 15-minute sessions. After the session was over, the children were returned to their respective classes. At the beginning and at the end of the school year, the classroom teachers evaluated the children's behavior in class and their attitudes toward learning. The addition of the modified hypnotic technique enabled 45 of 48 children to function better in school. The improvement ranged from decreased hyperactivity to better than average performance in class. Significant correlations were found between percent of relaxation with increased attention span (r = .40) and number of sessions attended with increased self-confidence (r = .46). ranged from decreased hyperactivity to better than average performance in class. Significant correlations were found between percent of relaxation with increased attention span (r = .40) and number of sessions attended with increased self-confidence (r = .46). 1963 Sternlicht, M.; Wanderer, Z. W. (1963). Hypnotic susceptibility and mental deficiency. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 11, 104-111. There are few reports in the literature of the tested hypnotic susceptibility of mental defectives. A susceptibility experiment on a group of 20 children suggests that, contrary to speculation, mental defectives are as hypnotizable as normals. Hypnotic depth potential may be related to intelligence within narrow ranges. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved) 1961 Das, J. P. (1961). Body-sway suggestibility and mental deficiency. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 13-15. 50 mental defectives were subjected to the body-sway test of suggestibility. Contrary to expectations the defectives did not differ from each other when taken according to grades of deficiency, nor do they differ, as a group, from normal (college) controls. From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2JI13D. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved) 1960 McCord, Hallack (1960). A note on a change in mental age accompanying hypnosis of a teen-age-girl. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 8 (4), 259-262. An adolescent with questionable diagnosis (mental retardation due to organic brain damage or functional psychological disorder) was given the E-G-Y test for an estimate of verbal intelligence. After initial testing, in which attention span was limited and she was very negativistic, she was re-tested in light hypnosis. Her mental age "more than doubled -- went up by six years -- "in the intervening 24 hours. The author ascribes improvement to relaxation from light hypnosis and opined that the 10 year level achieved under hypnosis was closr to her "true" level of functioning. Subsequent attempts to hypnotize her were not successful, possibly due to short attention span and negativistic tendencies. 1956 McCord, Hallack (1956). Hypnosis as an aid to the teaching of a severely mentally retarded teenage boy. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 4 (1), 21-23. (Abstracted in Psychological Abstracts 57: 3729) A 16 year old boy with I.Q. measured at 55 was hypnotized for 20 minutes daily for one month. During each session he was given material to learn (multiplication tables, spelling words, reading recognition, and general information -- only one presented during each hypnosis session). "At the end of 90 days, the subject was stil retaining amost 100 percent of all material presented except for the multiplication tables which showed about 50 percent loss" (p. 22). "As a result of routinely introduced hypnotic suggestions for well-being, happiness, desire to learn, and assurance of acceptance, Ben's motivation to learn in the classroom situation took a sharp surge upward. (It was for this reason that giving him parallel material in the normal state to be used to measure comparative learning rates promptly became scientifically unsound as a control in this study.)" (p. 22). Although he was not given material to study in between sessions, "it was known that he _mentally_ reviewed the material while working and playing in the school program" (p. 23). measure comparative learning rates promptly became scientifically unsound as a control in this study.)" (p. 22). Although he was not given material to study in between sessions, "it was known that he _mentally_ reviewed the material while working and playing in the school program" (p. 23). McCord, Hallack (1956). The hypnotizability of the mongoloid-type child. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 4 (1), 19-20. Seven mentally retarded people ranging in age from 9 to 30 were involved in a pilot study. The induction involved eye fixation coupled with sleep suggestions and lasted not more than 30 minutes. Five were judged to go into light trances; one "seemed to enter a trance, but she failed all of the usual tests through [sic] successfully meeting all challenges" (p. 19) and one appeared not to become hypnotized. 1954 Erickson, Milton H. (1954). Special techniques of brief hypnotherapy. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 2, 109-129. (Abstracted in Psychological Abstracts 55: 2508) Author describes techniques used with patients who aren't able, for internal or environmental reasons, to undertake comprehensive therapy, "Intentionally utilizing neurotic symptomatology to meet the unique needs of the patient" (p. 109). He provides 8 case reports. Patient 1 was reassured, in hypnosis, that his arm paralysis was due to "inertia syndrome" which he would continue to have, but it wouldn't interfere with his work. Patient 2, also with arm paralysis had another comparable, non-incapacitating, symptom substituted. Patients 3 and 4, for whome restrictions on therapy were the limits of time and situational realities, had their symptoms transformed (e.g. by introducing in hypnosis the obsessional thought or worry that he would NOT have the symptom for which he sought help). Patients 5 and 6 were helped, through hypnosis, to symptom amelioration. (Patient 5 had an IQ of 65.)