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Suggestion overrides the Stroop effect in highly hypnotizable individuals.
Amir Raz1, Miguel Moreno-Iñiguez, Laura Martin
1Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and New York State Psychiatric Institute, MRI Unit in the Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York, NY 10032, USA. dramirraz@gmail.com
Consciousness and Cognition
|June 13, 2006
Summary
Posthypnotic suggestion can significantly reduce or eliminate Stroop interference in highly hypnotizable individuals. This demonstrates that even seemingly automatic cognitive processes, like word reading, can be modulated by suggestion.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Hypnosis Research
Background:
- Cognitive scientists differentiate between automatic and controlled mental processes.
- The Stroop effect, where word meaning interferes with color naming, is a prime example of an automatic process.
- The potential to regain control over automatic processes is largely unexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether posthypnotic suggestion can influence or override automatic cognitive processes.
- To examine the effect of suggestion on Stroop interference in highly hypnotizable individuals.
Main Methods:
- A large sample of highly hypnotizable participants was recruited.
- Participants performed the Stroop task under conditions with and without a posthypnotic suggestion.
- The suggestion instructed participants to perceive the input stream as meaningless symbols.
Main Results:
- Posthypnotic suggestion significantly reduced Stroop interference in highly hypnotizable individuals.
- In some cases, the suggestion effectively removed Stroop interference.
- This indicates that a seemingly automatic process can be modulated by suggestion.
Conclusions:
- Highly hypnotizable individuals can regain control over automatic cognitive processes through posthypnotic suggestion.
- This challenges the notion of automaticity as being completely involuntary or unmodifiable.
- The findings have implications for understanding cognitive control and the mechanisms of hypnosis.