MEMORY LIABILITIES ASSOCIATED WITH HYPNOSIS - DOES LOW HYPNOTIZABILITY CONFER IMMUNITY

Retrospective analyses of data from the authors' program of research o n hypnosis and memory are presented, with special emphasis on effects observed among low hypnotizable individuals. In Experiment 1, particip ants completed seven forced-recall trials in an attempt to remember a series of pictures that had been shown 1 week earlier. For half the pa rticipants, the middle five trials were carried out using hypnotic pro cedures; the remaining participants performed all recall attempts in a motivated waking condition. Hypnosis failed to enhance correct recall for either high or low hypnotizable participants beyond the hypermnes ia and reminiscence effects associated with repeated retrieval attempt s over time. However, whereas high hypnotizable participants produced substantial numbers of confident recall errors (i.e., intrusions) inde pendent of the use of hypnosis, low hypnotizable participants exposed to hypnotic procedures reported significantly more intrusions than the ir counterparts in the waking condition. In Experiment 2, participants were asked to identify whether specific recollections, reported durin g two forced-interrogatory recall tests conducted 1 week earlier, had originated in the first or second of those tests. A general bias to mi sattribute previously reported recollections to the first Of two recal l occasions was observed; however, the effect was greatest among low h ypnotizables who had undergone the second recall attempt in hypnosis. The findings imply that highly hypnotizable individuals are not unique in their vulnerability to distortions of memory induced by hypnotic t echniques. Individuals of lesser hypnotic capacity also manifest memor y alterations when exposed to such procedures.