Hypnotic Context Research Articles

Computer versus live delivery of the Sussex Waterloo Scale of Hypnotizability (SWASH).

There exist reliable and stable trait differences in the ability to control phenomenology in response to imaginative suggestion. Hypnotisability scales measure response to imaginative suggestion within a hypnotic context. Because hypnotisability has recently been shown to predict measures of experiential change in psychological experiments (e.g., the rubber hand illusion), there is a need for easy to use screening tools which are accessible to researchers with little or no background in hypnosis or imaginative suggestion research. The SWASH is a time efficient group hypnotisability scale which can be administered to up to 50 participants simultaneously. Here we present norms from an undergraduate sample for a recorded version delivered by a computer program alongside norms for a live presentation. Reliability, validity and mean scores are similar across the two presentations. Computer delivery of a prerecorded script provides a simple tool to rapidly screen for hypnotisability in large groups for researchers with no prior experience of hypnosis research.

French Norms for the Online Sussex-Waterloo Scale of Hypnotizability

ABSTRACT This article presents French norms for the online version of the Sussex-Waterloo Scale of Hypnotizability. This scale is an online adaptation of the well-established Waterloo-Stanford Group C Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility: with both behavioral and subjective scores. Insofar as hypnotizability (the ability to respond to suggestions in a hypnotic context) varies substantially in the general population and remains generally stable throughout life, it is important to measure it in experiments using hypnotic suggestion. However, these scales are time consuming, as they often require multiple sessions to achieve a suitable sample size for subsequent participant screening. One promising route for overcoming this inconvenience is to perform hypnotizability assessment online. The Sussex-Waterloo Scale of Hypnotizability is the first to have demonstrated the viability of online measurement. The authors demonstrate that their translation of this scale yields similar statistics.

Phenomenological control as cold control.

We first review recent work from our laboratory, which construes hypnotizability as an example of a more general trait of capacity for phenomenological control, which people can use to create subjective experiences in many nonhypnotic contexts where those experiences fulfill people's goals. Second, we review recent work, which construes phenomenological control as a specifically metacognitive process, where intentional cognitive and motor action occurs without awareness of specific intentions (cold control theory). In terms of the reach of phenomenological control, we argue that various laboratory phenomena, namely vicarious pain, mirror-touch synesthesia, and the rubber hand illusion are to an unknown degree a construction of phenomenological control. The argument can of course be extended in principle to other findings. In terms of the reach of cold control, we present a new theory of intentional binding and show how intentional binding can measure the absence of conscious intentions in the hypnotic context. We obtain no evidence that cold control confers abilities beyond the changes in the metacognitive monitoring it postulates, and we explore the negative correlation between mindfulness and cold control viewed as a lack of mindfulness of intentions.

Strategies that reduce Stroop interference.

A remarkable example of reducing Stroop interference is provided by the word blindness post-hypnotic suggestion (a suggestion to see words as meaningless during the Stroop task). This suggestion has been repeatedly demonstrated to halve Stroop interference when it is given to highly hypnotizable people. In order to explore how highly hypnotizable individuals manage to reduce Stroop interference when they respond to the word blindness suggestion, we tested four candidate strategies in two experiments outside of the hypnotic context. A strategy of looking away from the target words and a strategy of visual blurring demonstrated compelling evidence for substantially reducing Stroop interference in both experiments. However, the pattern of results produced by these strategies did not match those of the word blindness suggestion. Crucially, neither looking away nor visual blurring managed to speed up incongruent responses, suggesting that neither of these strategies is the likely underlying mechanism of the word blindness suggestion. Although the current results did not unravel the mystery of the word blindness suggestion, they showed that there are multiple voluntary ways through which participants can dramatically reduce Stroop interference.

The Phenomenological Control Scale: Measuring the Capacity for Creating Illusory Nonvolition, Hallucination and Delusion

Phenomenological control is the ability to generate experiences to meet expectancies. There are stable trait differences in this ability, as shown by responses to imaginative suggestions of, for example, paralysis, amnesia, and auditory, visual, gustatory and tactile hallucinations. Phenomenological control has primarily been studied within the context of hypnosis, in which suggestions are delivered following a hypnotic induction. Reports of substantial relationships between phenomenological control in a hypnotic context (hypnotizability) and experimental measures (e.g., the rubber hand illusion) suggest the need for a broad investigation of the influence of phenomenological control in psychological experiments. However, hypnosis is not required for successful response to imaginative suggestion. Because misconceptions about the hypnotic context may influence hypnotizability scores, a non-hypnotic scale which better matches the contextual expectancies of other experiments and avoids the hypnotic context is potentially better suited for such investigation. We present norms for the Phenomenological Control Scale (PCS), an adaptation of the Sussex Waterloo Scale of Hypnotizability (SWASH) which is free of the hypnotic context. Mean scores for the PCS are higher than for SWASH, and the subjective scales of PCS and SWASH show similar reliability. The PCS subjective scale is a reliable tool for measuring trait response to imaginative suggestion (i.e., phenomenological control) outside the context of hypnosis.

Direct verbal suggestibility: Measurement and significance.

Hypnotic suggestibility is part of the wider psychological trait of direct verbal suggestibility (DVS). Historically, DVS in hypnosis has informed theories of consciousness and of conversion disorder. More recently it has served as a research tool in cognitive science and in cognitive neuroscience in particular. Here we consider DVS as a general trait, its relation to other psychological characteristics and abilities, and to the origin and treatment of clinical conditions. We then outline the distribution of DVS in the population, its measurement, relationship to other forms of suggestibility, placebo responsiveness, personal characteristics, gender, neurological processes and other factors, such as expectancy. There is currently no scale specifically designed to measure DVS outside a hypnotic context. The most commonly used and well-researched of the hypnosis-based scales, the Harvard Group Scale, is described and identified as a basis for a more broadly based measure of DVS for use in psychological research.

Trait phenomenological control predicts experience of mirror synaesthesia and the rubber hand illusion

In hypnotic responding, expectancies arising from imaginative suggestion drive striking experiential changes (e.g., hallucinations) — which are experienced as involuntary — according to a normally distributed and stable trait ability (hypnotisability). Such experiences can be triggered by implicit suggestion and occur outside the hypnotic context. In large sample studies (of 156, 404 and 353 participants), we report substantial relationships between hypnotisability and experimental measures of experiential change in mirror-sensory synaesthesia and the rubber hand illusion comparable to relationships between hypnotisability and individual hypnosis scale items. The control of phenomenology to meet expectancies arising from perceived task requirements can account for experiential change in psychological experiments.

The Hypnotic Induction in the Broad Scheme of Hypnosis: A Sociocognitive Perspective

Researchers and clinicians typically divide hypnosis into two distinct parts: the induction and the suggestions that follow. We suggest that this distinction is arbitrary and artificial. Different definitions of hypnosis ascribe different roles to the hypnotic induction, yet none clearly specifies the mechanisms that mediate or moderate subjective and behavioral responses to hypnotic suggestions. Researchers have identified few if any differences in responding across diverse hypnotic inductions, and surprisingly little research has focused on the specific ingredients that optimize responsiveness. From a sociocognitive perspective, we consider the role of inductions in the broader scheme of hypnosis and suggest that there is no clear line of demarcation between prehypnotic information, the induction, suggestions, and other constituents of the hypnotic context. We describe research efforts to maximize responses to hypnotic suggestions, which encompass the induction and other aspects of the broader hypnotic framework, and conclude with a call for more research on inductions and suggestions to better understand their role within hypnotic interventions in research and clinical contexts.

The role of frontal executive functions in hypnosis and hypnotic suggestibility.

There is both theoretical and empirical evidence supporting a role for frontal executive functions (FEFs) in hypnosis and hypnotic suggestibility. However, the precise nature of this involvement is debated. While there is clear evidence that FEFs are impaired under hypnosis, the cause of this decreased function is unclear. Theories make differing predictions as to the role of FEFs in hypnotic suggestibility, with some arguing that decreased baseline (normal function outside of the hypnotic context) FEFs lead to greater hypnotic suggestibility and others arguing that increased baseline FEFs lead to greater hypnotic suggestibility. Other theories posit that suggestibility is more a consequence of attitude rather than aptitude. The present work provides a critical review of the involvement of FEFs in hypnosis and hypnotic suggestibility. The review considers behavioral evidence from studies employing putative frontal lobe tasks including tests of fluid intelligence and both task- and nontask-based neuroimaging evidence. It is determined that the evidence to date is inconclusive and that more work is needed to establish a necessary and sufficient role for FEFs in hypnosis or hypnotic suggestibility. Recommendations are made for future research.

Hypnosis and Empathy: A Complex Relationship

This article takes its inspiration from Wickramasekera II’s empathic involvement theory of hypnosis. That model illuminates the mutual territory of hypnosis and empathy—common to much interaction between hypnotist and subject, and to the internal process of subjects as they enact suggestions of the hypnotist. However, the present article suggests that the overlap is not as ubiquitous as the empathic involvement theory asserts. Other aspects of hypnosis involve disengagement from real persons in the environment and dissociating from other ego states of the self. Amnesia and certain uses of focused attention in the hypnotic context run counter to empathy. The fantasizer type of high hypnotizables experiences hypnosis more empathically than do the equally hypnotizable dissociater type. This article also explores the relationship of hypnosis and empathy to other related states, including meditation, dreaming, and psychedelic drugs. The conclusion is that empathy is an important component of many hypnotic phenomena, but that the relationship is as partial and complex as the manner in which other traits, such as imagery ability and dissociation, map onto hypnosis.

P05.49. Development of a model for the conduct of randomized clinical trials of hypnotic intervention

Purpose Research on the efficacy of hypnosis has been limited due to the lack of a sham hypnosis (placebo) for comparison to use as a control in randomized clinical trials. Researchers have used a variety of controls ranging from wait-lists to structured attention, resulting in a lack of blinding of participants and inconsistency. A sham hypnosis methodology would provide a means to compare study results and make aggregate statements regarding hypnosis’ efficacy beyond placebo effects. The purpose of this study involved two primary aims: 1) to evaluate whether white noise can be considered an “inert” procedure; and 2) to evaluate the feasibility of a model of sham hypnosis that uses white noise as a potential form of “hypnosis” when presented within the hypnotic context.

Furnishing hypnotic instructions with implementation intentions enhances hypnotic responsiveness

Forming implementation intentions has been consistently shown to be a powerful self-regulatory strategy. As the self-regulation of thoughts is important for the experience of involuntariness in the hypnotic context, investigating the effectiveness of implementation intentions on the suppression of thoughts was the focus of the present study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions (hypnotic instruction plus implementation intention, hypnotic instruction, implementation intention, and control condition). Results showed that participants who received information included in the "Carleton Skill Training Program" and in addition formed implementation intentions improved their hypnotic responsiveness as compared to all of the other three groups on measures of objective responding and involuntary responding. Thus, in line with the nonstate or cognitive social-psychological view of hypnosis stating that an individual's hypnotic suggestibility is not dispositional but modifiable, our results suggest that hypnotic responsiveness can be heightened by furnishing hypnotic instructions with ad hoc implementation intentions.

Psychology and psychical research in France around the end of the 19th century

During the last third of the 19th century, the ‘new’ French psychology developed within ‘the hypnotic context’ opened up by Charcot. In spite of their claims to the scientific nature of their hypnotic experiments, Charcot and his followers were unable to avoid the miracles that had accompanied mesmerism, the forerunner of hypnosis. The hysterics hypnotized in the Salpêtrière Hospital were expected to have supernormal faculties and these experiments opened the door to psychical research. In 1885 the first French psychology society was founded. The research carried out by this society may seem surprising: its members – Charles Richet in particular – were interested in strange phenomena, like magnetic lucidity, ‘mental suggestion’, thought-reading, etc. Very quickly, psychologists applied themselves to finding rational explanations for these supposedly miraculous gifts. Generally, they ascribed them to unconscious or subconscious perceptual mechanisms. Finally, after a few years, studies of psychical phenomena were excluded from the field of psychology. However, during the 4th International Congress of Psychology, which took place in Paris in 1900, the foundation of an institute devoted to the study of psychical phenomena was announced, but Pierre Janet and Georges Dumas founded within it the Société Française de Psychologie, from which psychical research was excluded. As for Charles Richet, disappointed by the psychologists, he devoted himself to the development of a new ‘science’ which he called ‘Métapsychique’. Several hypotheses have been put forward to account for this early research undertaken by the French psychologists, pertaining as much to parapsychology as to scientific psychology.

Mirrored-self misidentification in the hypnosis laboratory: Recreating the delusion from its component factors

Introduction. Mirrored-self misidentification is the delusional belief that one's reflection in the mirror is a stranger. According to Langdon and Coltheart's (2000) “two-factor” theory of monothematic delusions, the delusion can arise from deficits in face processing (Factor 1) and belief evaluation (Factor 2). This study gave participants separate hypnotic suggestions for these two factors to create a hypnotic analogue of the delusion. Method. Forty-six high hypnotisable participants received a hypnotic suggestion for either Factor 1 alone or for Factors 1 and 2, either with hypnosis (hypnosis condition) or without (wake condition). Participants were asked to look into a mirror and to describe what they saw. Participants who reported seeing a stranger in the mirror also received a series of challenges. Results. Overall, 70% of participants in the hypnosis condition passed the delusion; only 22% of participants in the wake condition passed. Importantly, in hypnosis, the Factor 1 alone suggestion was just as effective in creating the delusion as the combined Factor 1 and Factor 2 suggestion. Conclusion. These results suggest that hypnotic suggestion can recreate the mirrored-self misidentification delusion from its component factors. Notably, the hypnotic context, itself known to disrupt belief evaluation, can act as Factor 2.

Behavioral Persistence in Carrying Out a Posthypnotic Suggestion Beyond the Hypnotic Context: A Consideration of the Role of Perceived Demand Characteristics

Compliance with a posthypnotic suggestion (PHS) to carry out a specific behavior in a subsequent nonhypnotic setting was investigated in high and medium hypnotizable participants. The target behavior—solicited by either a PHS given during hypnosis, a waking social request, or both—was to be performed daily for an unspecified period of time. Findings indicated that the waking request alone yielded a high level of compliance, particularly among medium hypnotizable participants. In contrast, highly hypnotizable participants who received the PHS coupled with instructions for posthypnotic amnesia exhibited considerable variation in responding, whereas high hypnotizables, who received either a waking request, or a combination of PHS and waking request, performed similarly to medium hypnotizables. Postexperimental interview data suggest that perceived demand characteristics may contribute to variation in the persistence of posthypnotic behavior outside the hypnotic context.

Attention control and susceptibility to hypnosis

The present work aimed at assessing whether the interference exerted by task-irrelevant spatial information is comparable in high- and low-susceptible individuals and whether it may be eliminated by means of a specific posthypnotic suggestion. To this purpose high- and low-susceptible participants were tested using a Simon-like interference task after the administration of a suggestion aimed at preventing the processing of the irrelevant spatial information conveyed by the stimuli. The suggestion could be administered either in the absence or following a standard hypnotic induction. We showed that, outside from the hypnotic context, the Simon effect was similar in high and low-susceptible participants and it was significantly reduced following the posthypnotic suggestion in high-susceptible participants only. These results show that a specific posthypnotic suggestion can alter information processing in high-susceptible individuals and reduce the interfering effect exerted by arrow stimuli.

How Clinicians Learn to Integrate Hypnotic Tactics and Strategies into Psychotherapeutic Interventions

Therapeutic suggestions administered within a hypnotic context can improve the efficacy of psychotherapeutic interventions in dealing with a wide range of clinical problems. Hamburg (2006) illustrates how he overcame both theoretical barriers and tactical issues in treating two clients who presented with fear of dying. His account calls attention to the need to help clinicians make the transition from introductory hypnosis training programs to actually applying hypnotic tactics and strategies in the clinical context. The development of clinical and experimental hypnosis and behavior therapy have influenced each other more profoundly than has generally been acknowledged. Theoretical barriers to the use of hypnosis in behavioral therapies are more apparent than real.

Personality, expectancy, and hypnotizability

This paper examines the relationships between several personality variables and hypnotizability. Measures of four variables from the Rational versus Experiential Inventory ( Epstein, Norris, & Pacini, 1995) and of fantasy proneness ( Wilson & Barber, 1983) were administered to 248 participants, about half in the hypnotic context and half out-of-context. In addition, measures of expectancies for behavioral responses to, and subjective experiences produced by, hypnotic suggestions were measured in-context. Hypnotizability was assessed using the Carlton University Responsiveness to Suggestion Scale ( Spanos, Radtke, Hodgins, Bertrand, & Stam, 1981). Fantasy proneness was related, both in- and out-of-context, to both measures of expectancy and to behavioral and experiential responses to suggestions. Experiential processing was related to expectancy for experiential responses to suggestions in both contexts. Stepwise regression analyses revealed that both measures of expectancy contributed to the prediction of both hypnotic behaviors and experiences, but that no other variables added significant variance to the model after variance associated with expectancies was accounted for. An explanation of the results from the viewpoint of response expectancy theory is offered.

Pain-Reduction Strategies in Hypnotic Context and Hypnosis: ERPs and SCRs During a Secondary Auditory Task

Pain-rating scores were obtained from 10 high, 10 medium, and 10 low hypnotizable subjects who were holding a painful cold bottle in their left hands and were exposed to pain reduction treatments while they were performing a secondary oddball task. All subjects received suggestions of dissociative imagery and focused analgesia as cognitive strategies for pain reduction. The following measures were obtained for tone targets of the auditory oddball task: (a) reaction time; (b) P300 peak amplitude of the event-related potentials; (c) skin conductance levels and skin conductance responses. Focused analgesia produced the most pain reduction in high, but not medium or low, hypnotizable subjects who showed shorter reaction times, higher central and parietal P300 peaks, and higher skin conductance responses. These findings were discussed vis-à-vis the dissociated-control model assuming that capacity demands of hypnotic suggestion are low.

Hypnosis, Attention, and Time Cognition

This study examined the influence of hypnotic susceptibility (high vs. low), hypnotic condition (hypnotic vs. nonhypnotic), and attentional demands (high vs. low) on the verbal estimates (N = 510 undergraduates) of 30- and 60-second time intervals under both prospective (aware of timing) and retrospective (unaware of timing) paradigms. It was expected that prospective judgments would be greater than retrospective judgments across all factors. Consistent with existing literature, strong support was found for this hypothesis. Hypotheses generated within the trait-state paradigm were not supported. No effects were found for hypnotic susceptibility in any form. Partial support was found for the sociocognitive model. The hypnotic context, independent of level of susceptibility, apparently utilizes the attentional resources of participants and as a by-product leads to underestimation of time. Longer time intervals (60s) were also underestimated in comparison to shorter intervals (30s).