Hypnotic amnesia revisited

Abstract

60 high and 60 low susceptible Ss were randomly assigned (12 groups of 10 Ss each) to 6 experimental procedures which differed in terms of the type of amnesia suggestions given (i.e., pennissively or authoritatively worded amnesia suggestions) and the kind of motivation accompanying the amnesia suggestions (i.e., hypnotic motivation, waking motivation, and waking nonmotivation). Results show that high susceptible Ss performed more effectively in the direction of the amnesia suggestions, but that these suggestions were not totally effective for any of the 12 groups. Furthermore, there were no differences in response either to pennissively or authoritatively worded amnesia suggestions or to hypnotic or waking procedures, but there were differences in response to task-motivating and non-task-motivating procedures (task-motivated Ss were ostensibly more amnesic).