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Hypnotic susceptibility and verbal automaticity: automatic and strategic processing differences in the Stroop
1Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
|May 1, 1992
Summary
Highly hypnotizable (HH) individuals exhibit greater automatic word processing than low hypnotizable (LH) individuals. This difference in automaticity was confirmed using the Stroop color-naming task with varying interstimulus intervals.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Hypnosis Research
Background:
- The original hypothesis proposed that highly hypnotizable (HH) subjects process words more automatically than low hypnotizable (LH) subjects.
- Previous research suggested differences in automatic processing between individuals with varying hypnotic susceptibility.
Purpose of the Study:
- To retest the hypothesis that HH subjects process words more automatically than LH subjects.
- To differentiate between automatic and strategic processing in the Stroop color-naming task based on hypnotic susceptibility.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the Stroop color-naming task with stimuli comprising color words ('red', 'blue') preceding color patches of the same or different colors.
- Manipulated the interstimulus interval (ISI) between the word and color patch to isolate automatic and strategic processing.
- Instructed subjects that the word predicted the opposite color 75% of the time to influence strategic processing.
Main Results:
- Both HH and LH subjects demonstrated significant strategic effects at longer ISIs (>400 ms), indicated by faster reaction times on incongruent trials compared to congruent trials.
- Only HH subjects exhibited significant automaticity at the shortest ISI (16.7 ms), showing faster reaction times on congruent trials than incongruent trials.
Conclusions:
- The findings support the hypothesis that HH individuals possess enhanced automatic word processing capabilities compared to LH individuals.
- Automaticity in information processing appears to be a key characteristic differentiating individuals with high hypnotic susceptibility.
- The study successfully employed the Stroop task with ISI manipulation to reveal differences in automatic processing related to hypnotic susceptibility.