Types of hypnotic dreams and their relation to hypnotic depth.

Several types of experiences in response to suggestions to have a dream are described, namely: (1) simply thinking about something; (2) daydreaming; (3) vivid hallucinations, like watching a film; and (4) feeling "bodily located in" a "dream world." In 2 experiments, only a minority of Ss rated their experiences as dreamlike, even when hypnotized. Significant positive relationships were found between the extent to which the experiences were rated as vivid and dreamlike, and 2 measures of hypnotic depth. The variable of whether or not Ss had gone through a hypnotic-induction procedure did not discriminate among types of response. These results illustrate the danger of pseudo-operational definitions of hypnosis that ignore Ss' subjective responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analgesic effects of posthypnotic suggestions and virtual reality distraction on thermal pain.

The individual and combined effects of posthypnotic suggestion (PHS) and virtual reality distraction (VRD) on experimentally induced thermal pain were examined using a 2 × 2, between-groups design. After receiving baseline thermal pain, each participant received hypnosis or no hypnosis, followed by VRD or no VRD during another pain stimulus. Consistent with the hypothesis that hypnosis and VRD work via different mechanisms, results show that posthypnotic analgesia was moderated by hypnotizability but VRD analgesia was not. The impact of PHSs for analgesia was specific to high hypnotizables, whereas VRD was effective independent of hypnotizability. Results also show a nonsignificant but predicted pattern for high hypnotizables: Audio hypnosis combined with VRD reduced worst pain 22% more and pain unpleasantness 25% more than did VRD alone. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of videotape playback of hypnotic events on posthypnotic amnesia.

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) (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)     

The mysterious persistence of hypnotic analgesia

Hypnotic treatment of pain has a long history and, among hypnotic phenomena, pain relief is a relatively commonplace focus for intervention, yet we lack a conceptual explanation for this treatment. Hilgard's neodissociation theory accounts for the phenomenon of acute hypnotic analgesia, but not of persistent pain relief. Perhaps the enduring effect of hypnotic treatment can be explained at either of two levels: a neurophysiological model or a learning model. This explanation leads to the further question: How does hypnotic treatment of recurring pain achieve enduring relief? Clinical experience suggests a two-component model. First, the clinician communicates specific ideas that strengthen the patient's ability to derive therapeutic support and to develop a sense of openness to the unexplored possibilities for pain relief within the security of nurturing therapeutic relationship. Second, the clinician employs posthypnotic suggestions that capitalize on the patient's particular pain experiences, which simultaneously ameliorate the pain experience, and which, in small, repetitive increments, tend to maintain persistent pain relief over increasing periods of time.     

Effects of hypnotic induction and suggestions on nocturnal dreaming and thinking.

Examined the effects of hypnotic induction and types of suggestions on sleep mentation, using 77 Ss in a 2 * 3 factorial experiment. Immediately before going to sleep at night, 1/2 of the Ss were exposed to a hypnotic induction and 1/2 were not, and all Ss were given either authoritative, permissive, or no suggestions to think and dream that night on a specific topic. Ss reported their thoughts and dreams when awakened at sleep onset and during REM and NREM periods. The intricate findings indicate that hypnotic induction and types of suggestions exerted complex effects on nocturnal thinking and dreaming. Contents of the dreams were affected by an interaction between hypnotic induction and types of suggestions, and the hypnotic induction increased the number of nocturnal thoughts which pertained to the specified topic. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive skill and traditional trance hypnotic inductions: A within-subjects comparison.

Comparison of a traditional trance hypnotic induction and a cognitive skill induction in a within-Ss design with 40 undergraduates showed that the cognitive skill induction enhanced subjective responses to suggestions and produced significant increments in behavioral responses when it was preceded by the trance induction. The trance procedure led to greater self-reported alterations in consciousness. Findings suggest that skill induction teaches cognitive strategies that enhance responsivity to suggestions in subsequent hypnotic experiences, independent of alterations in consciousness elicited by trance induction. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of expectancy, amnesia, and hypnotic induction in the performance of posthypnotic behavior.

Studied posthypnotic behavior in 54 female undergraduates. Except for controls, Ss were instructed to resist a posthypnotic suggestion along with either a positive or negative expectation that they would be successful. Ss were given the suggestion either immediately before or after a hypnotic induction. Ss' responses to the suggestion were significantly (p     

The effects of hypnotic susceptibility, suggestions for analgesia, and the utilization of cognitive strategies on the reduction of pain.

96 undergraduates were stratified in terms of hypnotic susceptibility (high, medium, and low) on the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A. Ss next had 1 arm immersed in ice water for a 60-sec pretest and, afterward, were assigned to 1 of 4 treatments: (a) hypnosis plus analgesia suggestion, (b) hypnosis alone, (c) suggestion alone, or (d) no hypnosis—no suggestion. Ss were retested in ice water and then interviewed about their experiences during the retest. High susceptibles reported the use of more cognitive strategies during the retest and showed greater pretest-to retest pain magnitude reductions than did low susceptibles. Similar effects occurred for Ss given, as opposed to not given, a suggestion. The hypnosis variable, however, failed to affect either strategy use or pain magnitude. Strategy use facilitated pain reduction only for Ss who did not worry about and did not exaggerate the unpleasantness of the situation (i.e., noncatastrophizers). The few Ss who showed dramatic pretest-to-retest reductions in pain magnitude (50% reduction or more) were all high-susceptible noncatastrophizers who used one or more cognitive strategies. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Structure of hypnotic test suggestions and attributions of responding involuntarily.

48 hypnotic and task-motivated undergraduates were administered 3 suggestions and 3 directives in counterbalanced order. The directives instructed Ss to make a series of motor responses while the suggestions implied that the same responses occurred involuntarily. Ss displayed greater overt response to directives than suggestions but rated their responses to suggestions as more involuntary than responses to directives. Suggested responses associated with incongruent proprioceptive feedback were rated as less involuntary than responses associated with congruent feedback. Goal-directed fantasy (GDF) was elicited more frequently by suggestions than directives, and GDF correlated with rated involuntariness and hypnotic susceptibility. Findings are consistent with the notions that hypnotic responding is strategic action moderated by Ss' construal of the test situation and that ratings of involuntariness reflect a socially cued interpretation of experience. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inductions versus suggestions: Effects of direct and indirect wording on hypnotic responding and experience.

This study examined the effects of direct wording (authoritative language, specific responses) versus indirect wording (permissive language, choice of responses) of hypnotic inductions and suggestions in measures of behavioral and subjective responding. Subjects experienced suggestion-related involuntariness and suggested effects to a greater degree in response to direct-word suggestions (Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility: Form A; Shor & Orne, 1962) than in response to indirect-worded suggestions (Alman-Wexler Indirect Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale; Pratt, Wood, & Alman, 1984). No difference in behavioral responding was observed. Furthermore, induction wording did not have an effect on these measures, nor did the wording of the induction and the wording of the suggestion types interact with each other. Female subjects attributed less of their responsiveness to their own efforts when they received direct suggestions, and male subjects were less likely to attribute their responsivity to the hypnotist's ability when they received indirect suggestions. Rapport with the hypnotist did not vary as a function of induction or suggestion wording. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of stereotypes and suggestions on preschoolers' reports.

Children's (N?=?176) reported memories of a strange man's visit were studied. Three- to 6-year-olds were interviewed repeatedly after the event in one of the following conditions: (a) control, in which no interviews contained suggestive questions; (b) stereotype, in which children were given previsit expectations about the stranger; (c) suggestion, in which interviews contained erroneous suggestions about misdeeds committed by the stranger; and (d) stereotype plus suggestion, in which children were given both pre- and postvisit manipulations. Results from open-ended interviews after 10 weeks indicated that control participants provided accurate reports, stereotypes resulted in a modest number of false reports, and suggestions resulted in a substantial number of false reports. Children in the stereotype-plus-suggestion group made high levels of false reports. All experimental conditions showed dramatic developmental trends favoring older children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conscious control of dreaming: The posthypnotic dream.

13 highly hypnotizable undergraduates each spent 2 nights in the laboratory. Before going to sleep, they were deeply hypnotized and instructed to dream about a stimulus narrative in every Stage-1 REM dream of the night. A 2nd stimulus narrative was used for the other night in counterbalanced order. Dream reports were obtained from Stage-1 REM awakenings. All Ss but 1 showed some effects, and the mean effect across Ss ranges from 2 1/2-4 elements of the stimulus narratives clearly appearing in the dreams. The peak effect ranged from 0-24 1/2 elements. Thematic analysis indicates that 8 reported at least 1 dream in which the stimulus narrative was a dominant content organizer. The number of stimulus narrative elements appearing in the dream reports was positively correlated with hypnotizability, i.e., with factors of hypnotizability characterizing an ability to function in an altered state of consciousness and negatively with the compulsive, inhibitory aspects of hypnotizability. Hypnosis is clearly helpful, but may not be necessary to achieve deliberate control of dream content. Such control may have important therapeutic and growth applications. (51 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Direct versus indirect suggestions, archaic involvement, and hypnotic experience.

This study examined the effects of direct (Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility: [{hgshs}:{a}]; Shor & Orne, 1962) versus indirect (Alman-Wexler Indirect Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale [{awihss}]; Pratt, Wood, & Alman, 1984) suggestions on arcahaic involvement (Nash & Spinler, in press) with the hypnotists, objective responding, and subjective involvement and involuntariness ratings, when the scales were administered in all possible combinations (direct/indirect, N?=?61; indirect/direct, N?=?61; direct/direct, N?=?57; indirect/indirect, N?=?95), across two sessions. At the initial testing, subjects who received indirect suggestions reported a greater emotional bond with the hypnotist and increased fear of negative appraisal than subjects who received direct suggestions. Repeated testing resulted in response decrements on measures of objective responding, subjective involvement, and involuntariness that were paralled by diminished involvement with the hypnotist. The most stable relation between scales was evident when scales were defined as direct hypnosis across both sessions. Although direct and indirect suggestions produced comparable effects in the first session, in the second session, direct suggestions fostered greater subjective involvement and feelings of involuntariness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of contextual information and gender on the prediction of hypnotic susceptibility.

Council, Kirsch, and Hafner (1986) obtained empirical support for the hypothesis that significant correlations between questionnaire measures of absorption and hypnotic susceptibility are an artifact of subjects' beliefs about their own hypnotizability. We tested this hypothesis in a two-session experiment. During Session 1, subjects completed questionnaire measures of absorption, mystical experience, daydreaming frequency, and paranormal beliefs. During Session 2, subjects were tested for hypnotic susceptibility. Subjects were also exposed to one of three information manipulations: They were told about hypnotic testing either before or after filling out the questionnaires or were not told about hypnotic testing. The information manipulation moderated the prediction of susceptibility by the questionnaire measures for women, but not for men. For women, scores on the absorption questionnaire predicted susceptibility only when subjects were informed about hypnotic testing. In the told-after condition, this effect generalized to all of the remaining questionnaire measures. For men, none of the questionnaires was a reliable predictor of susceptibility. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Component analysis of cognitive skill training for the enhancement of hypnotic susceptibility.

Compared 4 treatments to enhance the hypnotic responsiveness of 60 undergraduates (aged 18–34 yrs) who pretested as low in hypnotic suceptibility on the Carleton University Responsiveness to Suggestion Scale. Complete skill training included information aimed at encouraging (1) positive attitudes, (2) the use of imagery strategies, and (3) an interpretation of hypnotic behavior as active responding. Partial training included only Components 1 and 2. Both training packages enhanced attitudes toward hypnosis to an equivalent degree. However, complete training was much more effective than either partial training or no treatment at enhancing behavioral and subjective responding on 2 different posttest scales of hypnotic susceptibility. More than half of the Ss who received complete training, but none of the partial training or control Ss, scored in the high-susceptibility range on both posttests. Ss explicitly instructed to fake hypnosis and those in the complete skill-training treatment exhibited significantly different patterns of posttest responding. Findings support social-psychological perspectives that emphasize the importance of contextual factors in hypnotic responding. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects on recall of hypnotic induction, motivational suggestions, and suggested regression: A methodological and experimental analysis.

90 Ss were assessed for recall of syllables (learned 2 mo. previously) under 1 of 9 experimental conditions in a 3 X 3 factorial design. The 3 levels of the 1st independent variable were: hypnotic induction, eyes closed; no induction, eyes closed; and no induction, eyes open. The 3 levels of the 2nd independent variable were: recall without suggestions; recall with motivational suggestions; and recall with suggestions to regress to the time of original learning. Recall was not affected by the independent variables or their interaction. A comparable number of Ss in each of the 9 experimental groups testified postexperimentally that, during the experiment, they had imagined, felt, and believed they were back in the original learning situation. (30 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"The effects of stereotypes and suggestions on preschoolers' reports": Correction.

Reports an error in the original article by M. D. Leichtman and S. J. Ceci (Developmental Psychology, 1995[Jul], 31[4], 568–578). On pages 572 and 573, the artwork for Figures 3 and 4 was reversed. (The following abstract of this article original appeared in record 1995-40033-001). Children's (N?=?176) reported memories of a strange man's visit were studied. Three- to 6-yr-olds were interviewed repeatedly after the event in 1 of the following conditions: (a) control, in which no interviews contained suggestive questions; (b) stereotype, in which children were given previsit expectations about the stranger; (c) suggestion, in which interviews contained erroneous suggestions about misdeeds committed by the stranger; and (d) stereotype plus suggestion, in which children were given both pre- and postvisit manipulations. Results from open-ended interviews after 10 weeks indicated that control participants provided accurate reports, stereotypes resulted in a modest number of false reports, and suggestions resulted in a substantial number of false reports. Children in the stereotype-plus-suggestion group made high levels of false reports. All experimental conditions showed dramatic developmental trends favoring older children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of mediator rewards and suggestions upon negotiations.

Investigated the effects that 2 mediation techniques—rewarding negotiator concessions and suggesting concessions—have upon a negotiator's bargaining and outcomes. 170 male undergraduates served as the negotiator and opposing negotiator while a confederate acted as the mediator in 4 separate wage negotiations. Results show that (a) mediator rewards result in larger negotiator total concessions, more negotiator–opponent agreements, and higher joint outcomes than do no rewards; (b) mediator suggestions produce larger initial concessions than do no suggestions; and (c) mediator rewards and suggestions interact, in that each technique is more potent in the absence of the other. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Improved obstetric outcomes using hypnotic analgesia and skill mastery combined with childbirth education.

The benefits of hypnotic analgesia as an adjunct to childbirth education were studied in 60 nulliparous women. Subjects were divided into high and low hypnotic susceptibility groups before receiving 6 sessions of childbirth education and skill mastery using an ischemic pain task. Half of the Ss in each group received a hypnotic induction at the beginning of each session; the remaining control Ss received relaxation and breathing exercises typically used in childbirth education. Both hypnotic Ss and highly susceptible Ss reported reduced pain. Hypnotically prepared births had shorter Stage 1 labors, less medication, higher Apgar scores, and more frequent spontaneous deliveries than control Ss' births. Highly susceptible, hypnotically treated women had lower depression scores after birth than women in the other 3 groups. We propose that repeated skill mastery facilitated the effectiveness of hypnosis in our study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)