Effects of social-physiological variables on hypnotic amnesia

Three experiments assessed the hypothesis that suggested amnesia for a previously learned word list is a function of subjects' interpretations of the ambigous aspects of the amnesia testing situation. By manipulating preliminary instructions concerning interpretations of this situation, subjects who were unselected with respect to hypnotic susceptibility were induced to show either substantial increments or decrements in amnesia. However, subjects high on hypnotic susceptibility ignored preliminary instructions and therefore could not be induced to show decrements in amnesia. Previous findings of more amnesia in hypnotic than in task-motivated subjects were both replicated and reversed by varying subjects' interpretations of the amnesia task. Analyses on the combined data from the three experiments confirmed earlier findings that partial amnesics tend to recall list items in a relatively disorganized fashion. All of these findings are consistent with an inattention hypothesis of suggested amnesia. Theoretical implications for hypnosis research are discussed.