Hypnosis Attenuates Executive Cost of Prospective Memory

Prospective memory is the ability to formulate and carry out actions at the appropriate time or in the appropriate context. This study aimed to identify the effect of hypnosis on prospective memory performance and to analyze the involvement of executive control processes in intention realization in a hypnotically altered state of consciousness. In 1 experiment, manipulating hypnotic instruction in a within-subject fashion, the authors explored the event-based prospective memory performance of 23 volunteers in 3 conditions: baseline, expectation, and execution. The primary result was that executing prospective memory responses, at the same accuracy rate, produced a significantly lower cost of ongoing responses in terms of response latency in the hypnotic state than in wake condition.