| Abstract: | Conducted 2 experiments to evaluate the degree to which hypnotic depth and hypnotic skill influence the posthypnotic persistence of an uncancelled suggestion. Each experiment employed 24 college students (8 high susceptible, 8 medium susceptible, and 8 low susceptible, based on Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A, scores). The induction of hypnosis in Exp I was by videotape; in Exp II, an almost identical induction was conducted individually by the experimenter. In both experiments, an arm analgesia item was left uncancelled. Over the 2 experiments, analgesia persisted posthypnotically for 20% of the highly susceptible Ss. These Ss differed from the highly susceptible Ss not manifesting the phenomenon in having significantly better hypnotic analgesia and greater hypnotic depth. Results suggest that posthypnotic persistence of an uncancelled suggestion was confined to a minority of highly hypnotizable Ss. Persistence appears to have affinities with other low-incidence hypnotic phenomena to which only the top 2–3% of Ss in the range of hypnotic susceptibility respond. The majority of highly susceptible Ss either cancelled an uncancelled suggestion themselves, or else the suggestion faded with time. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
