Recalling the Unrecallable: Should Hypnosis Be Used to Recover Memories in Psychotherapy?

Lynn, Steven Jay; Lock, Timothy G.; Myers, Bryan; Payne, David G.

doi:10.1111/1467-8721.ep11512662

Cited by 54 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…It bears mentioning that our results can not be accounted for in terms of the operation of a "yes" response set or indiscriminate responding. Taken together, our findings are consistent with previous studies [see 4] indicating when the situational context exerts a strong pull for false memories, differences between hypnotic and nonhypnotic conditions fail to emerge. In fact, differences between hypnotic and non-hypnotic conditions may well be limited to situations in which there are few or 10 / NEUSCHATZ ET AL.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Hypnosis and Memory Illusions: An Investigation Using the Deese/Roediger and McDermott Paradigm

Neuschatz

Lynn

Benoit

et al. 2002

Imagination, Cognition and Personality

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Our research used the Deese/Roediger and McDermott paradigm [1] to examine the effects of hypnosis on memory. The paradigm yielded a high rate of false recognition (>.70), regardless of whether participants were hypnotized or not. Hypnotized (N = 21) and non-hypnotized (N = 20) participants reported high false recognition rates and were very confident in their remembrances, independent of their recognition accuracy and their level of hypnotic suggestibility (medium vs. high). Although our results provide no support for the proposition that hypnosis is a viable memory enhancement procedure, hypnosis did not impair recognition above and beyond the non-hypnotic condition.Despite more than two decades of research, the use of hypnosis as a recall enhancement procedure remains controversial. On the one hand, perhaps the majority of researchers in the field of hypnosis and memory [e.g., 2-6] have expressed great concern about the potential of hypnosis to increase false memories and unwarranted confidence in remembrances. As Kihlstrom notes [2], concerns 3

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Hypnosis and Memory Illusions: An Investigation Using the Deese/Roediger and McDermott Paradigm

Neuschatz

Lynn

Benoit

et al. 2002

Imagination, Cognition and Personality

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“…Although participants in the hypnosis group were slightly more confident in their estimates of changed difficult items, no group confidence differences were revealed when we considered the accuracy of the changed estimates across all events. Moreover, the rated emotionality and memorability of the news events did not mediate the effects of hypnotic or nonhypnotic recall, a finding consistent with other reports (see Lynn et al, 1997). Participants in the hypnosis group did, however, change fewer of their initial estimates relative to participants in the relaxation group.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…Our study represents the first demonstration of a dissociation between self-report and behavioural indices of confidence in a study of hypnosis and memory. Like a number of other studies (see Brown et al, 1998;Lynn et al, 1997), we found only minimal support for the idea that hypnosis inflates self-reported confidence. When participants initially dated events, individuals in the hypnosis and the relaxation conditions were equally confident and accurate in their estimates.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 70%

Hypnosis versus relaxation: accuracy and confidence in dating international news events

Green

Lynn

2005

Appl. Cognit. Psychol.

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This study compared participants who were administered either a hypnosis (n ¼ 50) or a relaxation (n ¼ 44) recall priming procedure in terms of the ability to estimate the dates of 20 relatively memorable ('easy') vs. less memorable ('difficult') international news events. The hypnosis and relaxation groups performed comparably in terms of the accuracy of estimates of when the events occurred, self-reported confidence in estimates, and the memorability and emotionality of the events that were reported during hypnosis and relaxation. After these initial ratings, participants were informed that 'at least one' of their estimates was incorrect, and they were given the opportunity to change their estimates of the date of when one or more of the events occurred. Participants who generated their initial estimates during hypnosis were less likely to change their previous estimates of both easy and difficult events, than were participants in the relaxation condition. The measure of selfreported confidence and a behavioural measure of willingness to change initial reports were largely dissociated from one another.

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“…Because the criteria for amnesia are not well specified, considerable latitude in interpretation regarding what constitutes "amnesia" and when memory recovery is "complete" may render attributions ofamnesia particularly vulnerable to suggestive influences and to labeling recall failures as "amnesia" by an authority figure such as a therapist. In an effort to recover additional memories, therapists might be tempted to use increasingly specialized techniques such as hypnosis, self-help books, and guided imagery, with all the pitfalls for suggestibility associated with such recovery attempts (Belli & Loftus, 1994Ceci & Loftus, 1994;Garry, Manning, Loftus, & Sherman, 1996;Hyman, Husband, & Billings, 1995;Lynn, Lock, Myers, & Payne, 1997).3 Such a recursive cycle of suggestive influences and experiential confirmation (see Lynn & McConkey, 1998;Lynn, Stafford, Malinoski, & Pintar, 1997;Spanos, 1996), abetted by the difficulty of retrieving childhood memories, may be associated with instances ofthe iatrogenic creation of DID as well as false memories of a traumatic past more generally. Survey research indicates that a sizable minority of therapists (Poole, Lindsay, Memon, & Bull, 1995) use specialized memory recovery procedures, so that the impact of subjective experiences of retrieval processes, in concert with social influence and expectation effects, may not be trivial.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recalling more childhood events leads to judgments of poorer memory: Implications for the recovered/false memory debate

Belli

Winkielman

Read

et al. 1998

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

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Dissociative disorders that are believed to develop from childhood sexual abuse are often considered to include amnesia for childhood events, particularly the events that involve the abuse itself. One unresolved issue is the extent to which memory recovery attempts can contribute to claims of having amnestic symptoms. Experiments with undergraduate subjects reveal that requiring more reports of childhood events will increase judgments of having poorer memory of one's childhood. The results are consistent with the use of heuristics when one is reasoning under conditions of uncertainty, as experienced difficulty in remembering more experiences is attributed to the incompleteness of childhood memory. The findings challenge the validity of reports of childhood amnesia that follow memory recovery attempts.

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Recalling the Unrecallable: Should Hypnosis Be Used to Recover Memories in Psychotherapy?

Cited by 54 publications

References 11 publications

Hypnosis and Memory Illusions: An Investigation Using the Deese/Roediger and McDermott Paradigm

Hypnosis and Memory Illusions: An Investigation Using the Deese/Roediger and McDermott Paradigm

Hypnosis versus relaxation: accuracy and confidence in dating international news events

Recalling more childhood events leads to judgments of poorer memory: Implications for the recovered/false memory debate

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