Previous research attempting to relate absorption to hypnotic time perception has been inconclusive. The present study provides a more thorough test of the absorption hypothesis by assessing the separate and combined effects of hypnotic responsiveness, hypnotic versus waking context, and involvingness of the stimulus content. Sixty subjects, tested in either a waking or a hypnotic condition, provided retrospective time estimates of two taped story narrations, selected to represent opposite extremes of interest and involvement. Overall, duration estimates were shorter for the involving than for the noninvolving content, and high-responsive subjects tended to give shorter estimates than did low-responsive subjects. However, the only substantial underestimation occurred when the high-responsive subjects listened to the involving tape in the hypnotic context-a finding that supports a general absorption hypothesis. Several alternative explanations for the pattern of results are discussed and new research directions are proposed.
Recent research has led some investigators to hypothesize that posthypnotic amnesia is characterized by a disruption in the memory search process and, more generally, by disorganization in memory retrieval. Data to test these hypotheses were provided by 141 male and female undergraduates administered the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scales, Forms B and C. Amnesia was assessed by the usual recall criterion and by a batch recognition-testing procedure. The disruptedsearch hypothesis, tested by comparing the effects of the amnesia suggestion on recall and recognition, was not supported. The use of recognition items, rank ordered by subjects according to their judgment of order of administration, furnished data to test the memory disorganization hypothesis. In support of this hypothesis, analyses of the temporal rankings of recognized items revealed greater disorganization in the memory of subjects who were initially amnesic by recall criteria than those who were partially amnesic or nonamnesic. Nevertheless, a number of other findings, including the fact that fewer than 50% of the initially amnesic subjects showed disorganized recognition and that the disorganization effect during recall was weak and inconsistent, call into question the explanatory power of this hypothesis. Recent research in posthypnotic amnesia has sought to identify its underlying processes. Much of this work has been done by Kihlstrom and Evans (Evans & Kihlstrom, 1973; Kihlstrom, 1977; Kihlstrom, 1978; Kihlstrom & Evans, 1979), who have come to view posthypnotic amnesia as a disruption in the retrieval functions of memory. According to Anderson and Bower's (1972) two-stage theory of memory, retrieval involves (a) a search for critical material, and
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