THE EFFECTS OF HYPNOSIS, CONTEXT REINSTATEMENT, AND ANXIETY ON EYEWITNESS MEMORY

The effects of hypnosis, context reinstatement, and motivational instr uctions on accuracy of recall for factual information and facial recog nition accuracy following a stressful event were assessed. None of the three techniques had a significant effect on factual memory or suscep tibility to suggestion as assessed by true-false and multiple-choice t ests. However, participants high in hypnotic susceptibility showed som ewhat better memory on the true-false test, and hypnosis affected perf ormance on the two photograph line-ups. Zn addition, hypnosis appealed to enhance facial recognition accuracy for participants who were low in anxiety, but not for those high in anxiety. Finally, there was evid ence of a curvilinear relationship between self-reported anxiety at ti me of retrieval and facial recognition accuracy.