Eight highly susceptible subjects were assigned to Hilgard's training procedures for eliciting "hidden" reports during hypnotic analgesia. These procedures indicate to subjects that a "hidden part" of themselves continues to feel high levels of pain while their "hypnotized part" experiences reduced pain. A second group of 8 subjects was given the opposite expectation concerning "hidden pain"-that their "hidden part" would feel less pain than their "hypnotized part." Results were unambiguous. Subjects expecting high levels of "hidden" pain reported high levels, whereas those expecting little "hidden" pain reported low levels. These results are inconsistent with the notion that "hidden" reports reflect the intrinsic activity of a "dissociated state." Instead, they indicate that "hidden" reports result from subjects' attempts to convincingly enact the role of "good hypnotic subject" as this role is denned for them by the experimental procedures they undergo.

In the present study we question whether all persons are more or less inclined to seek information that would resolve uncertainty about their own ability. We argue first that this inclination depends on one's uncertainty orientation, and second, that the strength of such an inclination is not a distinguishing feature of successoriented versus failure-threatened persons. Using a procedure developed by Trope (1979), we gave 99 male and female subjects the opportunity to reduce uncertainty as to whether they had high or intermediate ability (ascending condition) or low or intermediate ability (descending condition) on a test of a new ability. As predicted, uncertainty-oriented persons showed evidence of cognitive information seeking, whereas certainty-oriented persons did not. In addition, differences in the behavior of success-oriented and failure-threatened persons were interpreted more readily in affective than cognitive terms. In a scries of studies (Trope, 1975, 1979; Trope & Brickman, 1975), Trope has demonstrated the importance of cognitive information seeking as a function of the uncertainty reducing properties of achievement tasks. Citing the work of Festinger (1954), Nisbett and Valins (1972), Schachter (1959), and Suls and Miller (1977), Trope (1975) proposes that much achievement behavior can be understood in terms of "people's underlying need to assess their own attributes accurately" (p. 1505). This self-assessment explanation has been offered as an alternative to Atkinson's theory of achievement motivation (Atkinson, 1964; Atkinson & Feather, 1966; Atkinson & Raynor, 1974). For example, according to Atkinson's theory, the greatest affective arousal due to achievement-related motives will occur on tasks of intermediate difficulty (i.e., successoriented persons will most likely approach and failure-threatened persons will most likely avoid this situation). This reflects the possibility that these situations maximize the re-The present manuscript is based on the second author's masters thesis. The research was funded by SSHRC grant #410-77-0683, awarded to the first author. We thank the late Philip Brickman, Tory Higgins, James Olson, and Yaacov Trope for their help throughout various stages of the research and the manuscript Requests for reprints should be sent to

In this experiment we used a method that empirically assessed the effects of subject self-selection in laboratory research. Subjects were recruited for two "different" experiments (responses to erotica or personality questionnaires) and then exposed to the same procedures. The domain used to demonstrate this "different experiments" approach was sex research, and the substantive issue examined was whether men and women differ in their responses to erotica. In Part 1 of the study, all subjects answered questionnaires that assessed personality and demographic characteristics. In Part 2, subjects who agreed to watch an erotic movie (95% agreed) reported their reactions to it. The study indicated that conclusions about prior sexual experience, sexual opinions, and affective responses to the erotic film were qualified by recruitment condition. This experiment suggested that volunteer selection can have an important effect on experimental results, and it demonstrated a method for assessing the extent of these effects.

Three studies to pinpoint the underlying dynamics related to risk-taking in skilled and chance situations are presented. Study 1 is an attempt to demonstrate that cognitive and motivational theories of risk-taking must be combined to account for individual differences in skilled situations. Here, both informational influences as related to uncertainty orientation (cf. Sorrentino & Short, 1986) and affective influences as related to achievement-related motives are examined. In support of these notions, this study found that individual differences in uncertainty orientation and achievement-related motives combine to produce the greatest preference or avoidance of moderate risk (as opposed to low or high) in a skilled situation. Studies 2 and 3 show that the effect for uncertainty orientation generalizes to chance situations. Gender differences were also found to combine or interact with these effects. Taken together, these 3 studies help to clarify many issues remaining in the risk-taking area.Risk-taking behavior in skilled situations has long been an enigma for theorists attempting to account for choice behavior as a function of motivation or cognition. Drawing on early work on level of aspiration (e.g., Lewin, Dembo, Festinger, & Sears, 1944), Atkinson (1964) developed his original theory of achievement motivation, in which risk-taking played a central role. His theory stated that success-oriented persons, or those in whom the motive to succeed is greater than the motive to avoid failure, should prefer moderate risk to low or high levels of risk. Conversely, failure-threatened persons, or those in whom the motive to avoid failure is greater than the motive to succeed, should most avoid or least prefer moderate risk to low or high levels of risk.For success-oriented persons, preference for moderate risk is a compromise between the incentive value of success, which would be greatest at very difficult tasks, and the probability of success, which would be greatest at easy tasks. Thus to maximize one's opportunity to obtain pride in accomplishment, one should choose a task that one can realistically achieve and that contains some incentive value-a moderately risky task. Failure-threatened persons, however, should prefer low or high risk, as one is likely to avoid failure at any easy task and feel Study 1 is based on a master's thesis by Patricia A. Raso-Knott. Studies 2 and 3 are based on a doctoral dissertation by Erin C. Hewitt.

Three hypotheses concerning glossolalia were tested; that glossolalia (a) results from a "hyperaroused trance," (b) is associated with high levels of hypnotic susceptibility, and (c) is symptomatic of psychopathology. Contrary to the "trance" hypothesis, experienced glossolalics performed glossolalia with eyes open and without accompanying kinetic activity (e.g., trembling, shaking) or residual disorientation. Moreover, memory deficits following glossolalic speech occurred to the same degree following nontrance control activity. Glossolalics and nonglossolalic control subjects matched for age, sex, and level of education did not differ from one another on hypnotic susceptibility, absorption, or measures of psychopathology. Our findings are consistent with nontrance formulations that conceptualize the acquisition and maintenance of glossolalia in terms of social-learning variables.Glossolalic discourse ("speaking in tongues") is a human utterance devoid of semantic meaning or syntax. However, it contains a phonological structure that makes it sound languagelike in intonation, melody, and phoneme composition (Goodman, 1969a;Samarin, 1968; Wolfram, Note 1). Glossolalia has been recorded in non-Christian as well as Christian religious contexts and, occasionally, occurs in completely nonreligious settings (May, 1956; Samarin, 1972b). Within the Christian tradition, it has usually been interpreted as a manifestation of the Holy Spirit's presence within the speaker as well as a vehicle of communication with God in the forms of prophecy and prayer (Kelsey, 1964;Knox, 1950).' Scientific investigators have tended to conceptualize glossolalia from one of two perspectives. Some have argued that it is the product of an altered, dissociated, or "trance" state of consciousness (Goodman, 1972b; This research was supported in part by Carleton University Grant GR6-486B. We thank J. M. Brown, H. L. Radtke-Bodorik, and H. J. Stam for critically reading earlier drafts of this paper.Requests for reprints should be sent to N.