Hypnotic interviewing: the best way to interview eyewitnesses?

It has been suggested that hypnosis techniques may have the potential to enhance eyewitness memory in forensic investigations. However, laboratory research shows that increases in recall with hypnosis techniques are often associated with decreases in accuracy, false confidence in incorrect information, and increased suggestibility to leading questions and misleading post-event information. These problems limit the usefulness of hypnosis as an interviewing procedure. However, in practical investigations, many factors associated with hypnosis, apart from the hypnotic induction itself, might lead to memory enhancement compared with standard police interviews. For example, hypnotic interviewers, because of their psychological, clinical, and interpersonal skills, may be better interviewers than police officers. They may use effective interviewing strategies such as those associated with the “cognitive interview”; a procedure which has the potential to enhance recall by approximately 35% without the problems of memory distortion associated with hypnosis. It is concluded, therefore, that a cognitive interview procedure should be used in preference to hypnosis. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Directed forgetting and posthypnotic amnesia: information processing and social contexts

In three experiments we compared posthypnotic amnesia (PHA) with directed forgetting (DF), evaluating subjects' hypnotic susceptibility, hypnotized or not. Experiment 1 suggested that the memory processes in PHA and DF were not the same. Low and high susceptibility subjects responded differently in the two contexts. Experiment 2 demonstrated a context effect for highly susceptible subjects: They showed the usual DF response outside hypnosis but not during hypnosis. Experiment 3 showed that high and low susceptibility subjects responded similarly to DF instructions outside hypnosis, eliminating the susceptibility as an important variable in the DF response. We concluded: (a) The interaction of context and susceptibility was the important determinant of unusual DF responses for high susceptibles, and (b) information processing concepts are too limited to explain PHA and perhaps DF. Theories that include interactions appear necessary for an accurate understanding of hypnotic phenomena and perhaps some phenomena usually focused on by cognitive psychology.     

Is there a future for investigative hypnosis?

Since its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, hypnosis as an investigative procedure has declined in popularity such that many experts now consider it to be more a liability than a useful forensic tool. Indeed, in the US, a majority of the states follow a per se exclusion rule, prohibiting any memories retrieved during or after hypnosis from being introduced into evidence. In this paper, factors contributing to the demise of investigative hypnosis are re-examined. It is concluded that a per se exclusion rule is overly inclusive, but it is advisable for investigators to avoid using hypnosis when other, less contentious alternatives, such as the cognitive interview, are available. Nevertheless, it often goes unrecognised that a more positive legacy of investigative hypnosis is very present in modern investigative interviewing best practice; moreover, there may still be procedures employed in hypnotic interviewing that have yet to be exploited. For example, recent research indicates that, when divorced from the context of hypnosis, brief techniques such as focused breathing, and eye closure, can enhance memory. As memory enhancement with these techniques is achieved without the increase in false positive errors familiar to more traditional hypnosis techniques, evidence from such procedures should be acceptable to the courts. The potential role of hypnosis as a tool to reverse the effects of misinformation is also considered. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hypnotic suggestibility,cognitive inhibition,and dissociation

We examined two potential correlates of hypnotic suggestibility: dissociation and cognitive inhibition. Dissociation is the foundation of two of the major theories of hypnosis and other theories commonly postulate that hypnotic responding is a result of attentional abilities (including inhibition). Participants were administered the Waterloo-Stanford Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form C. Under the guise of an unrelated study, 180 of these participants also completed: a version of the Dissociative Experiences Scale that is normally distributed in non-clinical populations; a latent inhibition task, a spatial negative priming task, and a memory task designed to measure negative priming. The data ruled out even moderate correlations between hypnotic suggestibility and all the measures of dissociation and cognitive inhibition overall, though they also indicated gender differences. The results are a challenge for existing theories of hypnosis.     

Myths and misconceptions about hypnosis and suggestion: Separating fact and fiction

We present 21 prominent myths and misconceptions about hypnosis in order to promulgate accurate information and to highlight questions for future research. We argue that these myths and misconceptions have (a) fostered a skewed and stereotyped view of hypnosis among the lay public, (b) discouraged participant involvement in potentially helpful hypnotic interventions, and (c) impeded the exploration and application of hypnosis in scientific and practitioner communities. Myths reviewed span the view that hypnosis produces a trance or special state of consciousness and allied myths on topics related to hypnotic interventions; hypnotic responsiveness and the modification of hypnotic suggestibility; inducing hypnosis; and hypnosis and memory, awareness, and the experience of nonvolition. By demarcating myth from mystery and fact from fiction, and by highlighting what is known as well as what remains to be discovered, the science and practice of hypnosis can be advanced and grounded on a firmer empirical footing.     

Hypnosis, the timing of its introduction, and acceptance of misleading information

Allocated independent sets of 16 Ss to a crossed 2 (level of susceptibility: high, low) x 2 (information: misleading, nonmisleading) x 2 (state instruction: hypnosis, walking) design to examine the prediction that hypnosis will facilitate memory distortion when hypnotic instruction precedes the exposure of Ss to incorrect, misleading information. E. F. Loftus's recognition procedures were used to focus on the predicted effect. Free recall was also examined for memory distortion effects. Results indicated the presence of significant memory distortion for both recognition and free-recall memories. The distortion effects accompanying hypnosis, however, were not reliably greater than those accompanying waking instruction. Results are examined in relation to the operation of multiple parameters affecting memory distortion in hypnosis. Pertinent factors include the procedures for testing the effects of distortion and the level of Ss' aptitude for hypnosis.     

Low perceived control as a risk factor for episodic memory: the mediational role of anxiety and task interference

Low perceived control is considered a risk factor for poor cognitive functioning, but the mechanisms are unclear. The goal of the present study was to analyze anxiety and task interference as sequential mediators of the association between control beliefs and episodic memory. Cognitive-specific control beliefs were assessed prior to the lab session. State anxiety was assessed in the lab, followed by a word list recall task. The frequency of intrusive thoughts during the memory task was reported by the participants as a measure of task interference after the completion of the cognitive testing. The results for 152 participants from the ages of 22 to 84 years supported the predicted three-path mediation model. Lower levels of control beliefs were associated with higher state anxiety, which in turn affected episodic memory performance by increasing the likelihood of task interference, with age, sex, and verbal abilities as covariates. The implications of the results for developing interventions to improve memory performance are considered.     

认知老化模型的研究

以２３２名２０－７９岁成人为被试和５项认知能力测验为指标,应用结构方程建模方法建立了认知老化模型。     

Hypnosis and interrogative suggestibility

An attempt was made to induce memory errors through the use of misleading questioning in hypnosis. Subjects heard a short newslike story and gave initial free recall for the story details, then 4 days later were given three free recall trials: prior to hypnosis, following hypnotic induction and suggestion for enhanced memory, and after hypnosis was terminated. During hypnosis subjects were also twice interrogated with either misleading or objective questions for the story details. Accurate memory increased over the three free recall trials for all subjects regardless of hypnotizability. In recognition testing, subjects given misleading questions during the interrogation gave fewer correct responses, had more errors-in-fact as well as forgetting, and showed an increase in yielding to interrogative suggestibility over trials than subjects given objective questions. All subjects subsequently confabulated more information on the final awake free recall trial as a result of errors introduced during hypnotic interrogation process. These results help to clarify the inherent dangers in relying on hypnosis to enhance memory.     

Cognitive flexibility in hypnosis: response to change communication from the hypnotist.

It was predicted that modification of response as it indexes cognitive flexibility in the hypnotic subject is related to susceptibility to hypnosis and the difficulty of the hypnotic task attempted. Experiment 1 isolated two distinct hypnotic tasks (easy and difficult); alternative forms of each item conveyed either clear or unclear structure concerning the response that was perceived as most appropriate. In Experiment 2, 101 subjects were administered hypnotic induction procedures and tested for modification of response on both items; for each subject, the hypnotist posed a conflict in communication by plausibly requesting an alteration in response from the behavior that the subject had chosen to indicate previously. Change data demonstrated that hypnotic subjects modified their behavior in hypnosis, but their cognitive flexibility was much more relevant to easy than to difficult tasks. Results highlight a further dimension of role enactment as well as the special role cognitive skills in play in our understanding of performance on hypnotic test items.     

Literalism as a marker of hypnotic "trance": disconfirming evidence

The responses given by highly hypnotizable, hypnotic subjects and those of unhypnotizable subjects who simulated hypnosis to questions of the type, "Do you mind telling me your name?" and "Do you mind standing up?" were contrasted. The purpose was to examine Erickson's (1980) assertion that literalism (answering "yes" or "no" verbally or nonverbally without any cognitive elaboration) is a marker of hypnotic "trance." Simulators exhibited a greater rate of literalism than hypnotic "virtuosos" (i.e., extreme scorers on both group and individual hypnotizability measures). Hypnotized subjects and nonhypnotized subjects approached in the campus library responded comparably. Because less than a third of hypnotic virtuosos responded literally, our results strongly refuted Erickson's assertion that literalism is a cognitive feature of hypnosis.     

Distignuishing the source of memories reported during prior waking and hypnotic recall attempts

Subjects attempted to identify the occasion on which they first reported particular responses to questions that were asked twice during an experiment on hyphosis and memory 1 week earlier. During this earlier experiment, subjects of high and low hypnotizability had been randomly allocatd to one of two recall test sequences: wake-hypnosis ro wake-wake. Recall improved from the first (R1) to the second test (R2) in a comparable manner for both test sequences, indicating a failure of hypnosis to enhance memory. It is noteworthy that, when later queried about the origins of specific recollections, the majority of subjects exhibited a bias to attribute their responses to R1, regardless of whether hypnosis was used during R2. Moreover, low hypnotizables exposed to the hypnotic procedure and, to a lesser extent, high hypnotizables who recalled both times in the waking condition displayed and exaggerated tendency to overattribute recollections to R1. These data indicate that individuals cannot distinguish between memories retrieved prior to hypnosis and those that occured during hypnosis. Implications for implementing judicial standards regarding hypnosis are discussed.     

Freud's Views and the Contemporary Application of Hypnosis: Enhancing Therapy Within a Psychoanalytic Framework

Freud's theoretical writings on hypnosis are reviewed and reasons for his abandoning of this clinical tool are suggested. Clinical hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness which has its own felt reality and does not bypass the ego. In fact, many of the essential characteristics of hypnosis are ego functions. Functions such as focused or free-floating attention, deep absorption, enhanced memory, imagery, ego-receptivity, ego-activity, defenses, and the capacity for self-observation all remain intact in hypnosis. This view is contrasted with Freud's early uses of hypnosis which were not informed by his later psychoanalytic discoveries. Clinical material is presented which illustrates how the conversion from a psychoanalytic psychotherapy to a hypnoanalysis resolved a therapeutic impasse and allowed for a productive treatment. Fromm's view of hypnosis, as a special form of adaptive regression in the service of the ego is clinically illustrated. It is postulated that the altered state of hypnosis facilitates an increased ego mobility. It is the psychic mobility of hypnosis which facilitates the vacillation between primary and secondary process thinking; the experiencing ego and the observing ego, and conscious and unconscious experience. It is largely the ego-mobility and available memory in hypnosis that account for its advantages as compared to non-hypnotic treatment. Relational and self-psychological components of hypnosis are also proposed.     

Pain language of bone marrow transplantation patients.

Previous studies have shown that hypnosis may be effective in reducing intensity of pain among bone marrow transplantation patients whereas cognitive behavioral intervention without imagery was not effective for this group of patients. Since hypnosis alters patients' perception of pain and cognitive behavioral intervention changes patients' beliefs and improves their coping with pain, we hypothesized that sensory pain is more important than affective pain in understanding the pain experience of patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation. To test this hypothesis we administered the McGill Pain Questionnaire longitudinally to 50 consecutive eligible recipients of bone marrow transplantation during hospitalization to assess the different dimensions of pain they experienced. Consistent with our hypothesis, sensory pain fluctuated with treatment stages, and the pattern was consistent with previous findings. Patients reported significantly higher sensory pain than affective pain at all assessment points. In contrast, affective pain remained low and stable throughout the treatment. Our results contribute to the understanding of the nature of pain in bone marrow transplantation and suggest pain management strategies that focus on sensory pain as in hypnosis are more useful for such patients.     

Immediate and persisting effects of misleading questions and hypnosis on memory reports

Immediate and persisting effects of misleading questions and hypnosis on memory reports were assessed. After listening to a story, 52 highly suggestible students and 59 low and medium suggestible students were asked misleading or neutral questions in or out of hypnosis. All participants were then asked neutral questions without hypnosis. Both hypnosis and misleading questions significantly increased memory errors, and misleading questions produced significantly more errors than did hypnosis. The 2 effects were additive, so that misleading questions in hypnosis produced the greatest number of errors. There were no significant interactions with level of hypnotic suggestibility. Implications of these findings for the per se exclusion of posthypnotic testimony are discussed.     

Vitamins E and C pretreatment prevents ovariectomy-induced memory deficits in water maze

We investigated whether the pretreatment with vitamins E (alpha-tocopherol) and C (ascorbic acid) would act on ovariectomy-induced memory deficits in Morris water maze tasks. Adult female Wistar rats were divided into three groups: (1) naive (control), (2) sham (submitted to surgery without removal of ovaries) and (3) ovariectomized. Thirty days after surgery, they were trained in the Morris water maze in order to verify ovariectomy effects both on reference and working memory tasks. Results show that ovariectomized rats presented impairment in spatial navigation in the acquisition phase, as well as in the time spent in target quadrant and in the latency to cross over the location of the platform in test session, when compared to naive and sham groups (controls), in the reference memory task. Ovariectomy did not affect performance in the working memory task. Confirming our hypothesis, ovariectomized rats pretreated for 30 days with vitamins E and C had those impairments prevented. We conclude that ovariectomy significantly impairs spatial reference learning/memory and that pretreatment with vitamins E and C prevents such effect. Assuming this experimental memory impairment might mimic, at least in part, the cognitive deficit sometimes present in the human condition of lack of reproductive hormones, our findings lend support to a novel therapeutic strategy, based on vitamins E and C, to cognitive impairments in post-menopausal women.     

A sham drug improves a demanding prospective memory task

Every day, people rely on prospective memory—our ability to remember to perform a future action—to carry out myriad tasks. We examined how a sham cognitive enhancing drug might improve people's performance on a prospective memory task. We gave some people (but not others) the sham drug, and asked everyone to perform a high-effort prospective memory task. People who received the sham drug performed better on the prospective memory task. They also took longer to perform their ongoing task, suggesting that they increased their effortful monitoring. These results fit with research showing that suggestions can lead people to increase cognitive effort and increase memory performance.     

How much “effort” should be devoted to memory?

We focus on the issue of whether cognitive effort is causally related to memory. We begin with a discussion of the concept of cognitive effort as derived from capacity models of attention. We then suggest that the theoretical analysis of memory may involve concepts from different levels of psychological analysis, and we draw a distinction between concepts that represent boundary conditions and sufficient cause. When applied to memory phenomena, attentional concepts serve only as a boundary--or limiting--function in memory theory. In contrast, concepts that represent memorial processes serve as a sufficient cause function. In some instances, cognitive effort appears to have been used as a sufficient cause concept, resulting in some confusion. A review of the literature reveals a haphazard correlation between indexes of cognitive effort and of memory performance. Alternatively, the application of cognitive effort or capacity to the memory performance of certain populations (clinical, children, and elderly) illustrates a potentially more appropriate use of the concept.     

WILLIAM JAMES AND HYPNOSIS: A Centennial Reflection

Like many other early psychologists, William James was fascinated by hypnosis and related phenomena. For James, hypnosis was both an experimental technique for creating divisions of consciousness, and a laboratory model of naturally occurring disorders of awareness. James' treatment of consciousness in hypnosis presages contemporary interests in dissociation and implicit cognition, and underscores the role of the self in conscious mental life. At the same time. James recognized the complexity of hypnosis as an interpersonal process. In the end. James' views suggest how a rapprochement between the cognitive and social approaches to hypnosis might be achieved.     

The mediating effect of reflective-analytic cognitive style on rational thought

Abstract

We investigate whether non-miserly cognitive styles mediate the effects of cognitive ability and thinking dispositions on rational thought. Specifically, we review relevant literature on two dimensions that define non-miserly cognitive style: reflection-impulsivity and analytic-intuitive. We use these two dimensions to identify a continuum of cognitive styles that vary from miserly (impulsive-intuitive) to non-miserly (reflective-analytic) and are congruent with tendencies to commit specific rational thinking errors. Further, we argue that this continuum, which we label reflective-analytic cognitive style, mediates the effect of cognitive ability and thinking dispositions on rational thought. We conduct an experiment testing our predictions and find evidence, via structural equation modelling, that reflective-analytic cognitive style does mediate the effect of cognitive ability (as measured by working memory capacity) and thinking dispositions (as measured by need for cognition and actively open-minded thinking) on responses to traditional rational thinking tasks.