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The cognitive demands of hypnotic response
Miriam Wyzenbeek1, Richard A Bryant
1University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Hypnotic responding requires cognitive effort, contrary to popular belief. Even highly hypnotizable individuals showed impaired performance on a secondary task when maintaining hypnotic suggestions, indicating a demand on cognitive resources.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Hypnosis Research
Background:
- The popular notion suggests hypnotic responding is effortless.
- Previous research has not fully explored the cognitive demands of hypnotic suggestions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether hypnotic responding is effortless.
- To examine the cognitive resources required for maintaining hypnotic suggestions.
Main Methods:
- Compared high and low hypnotizable participants (N=70) in and out of hypnosis.
- Utilized a dual-task paradigm with hypnotic blindness and a secondary task.
- Varied visual stimulus salience to assess task performance.
Main Results:
- High hypnotizable participants maintained conviction in suggestions in both hypnosis and wake states.
- Hypnotized high hypnotizable participants performed worse on the secondary task with visual stimuli.
- Performance decrements on the secondary task increased with stimulus intensity.
Conclusions:
- Hypnotic responding is not effortless and demands cognitive resources.
- Increased cognitive effort is necessary to reconcile reality with hypnotic suggestions.
- Findings challenge the effortless model of hypnosis.
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