Posthypnotic amnesia for material learned before hypnosis

The impact of a suggestion for posthypnotic amnesia on material learned eit her before or during hypnosis was investigated across 2 experiments. In Exp eriment 1, very high, high, and low hypnotizable participants learned a wor d List either before or immediately after a hypnotic induction. During hypn osis, participants were given a suggestion for posthypnotic amnesia for the word list. After hypnosis, they were tested on recall, word-fragment, and word-recognition tasks. Experiment 2 replicated and extended Experiment 1 t hrough application of the real-simulating paradigm. Across the 2 experiment s, there was no difference in the performance of participants who learned t he word list either before or during hypnosis. Although amnesia on direct m emory measures was associated with high hypnotizability (Experiment I), an explanation based on demand characteristics could not be excluded (Experime nt 2). The implications of these findings for the use of posthypnotic amnes ia as a laboratory analog of disorders of autobiographical memory are discu ssed.