Effects of suggestibility and hypnosis on accurate and distorted retrieval from memory

Research investigated the hypothesis inferred from the theorizing of Loftus that suggestibility is related to the tendency to incorporate incorrect information into memory when this information has been subtly introduced after the to-be-remembered events have occurred. Specifically, it was predicted that if level of suggestibility is theoretically relevant to subjects' acceptance of misleading information, then more subjects who are highly hypnotically suggestible than those with a low level of hypnotic suggestibility will incorporate the incorrect information into memory. Hypnotic as compared with waking instruction should enhance this distortion effect by providing a context of testing in which subjects are readily prone to respond positively to suggestions. Eight independent groups of 12 subjects were tested. Separate groups of subjects of high and low suggestibility were presented with misleading or neutral information about a wallet-snatching incident and tested for memory under either waking or hypnotic instruction. Analysis of subjects' memory distortions indicated that suggestibility plays a somewhat different role than has been argued previously. The magnitude of distortion that was observed varied according to the stimulus features that were studied, but hypnotic suggestibility was not associated with the distortion effect. Despite the fact that hypnosis did not enhance recall in any way, subjects were frequently confident that distorted memories recovered under hypnosis were accurate.