Hypnotic underestimation of time: the busy beaver hypothesis

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that the hypnotic underestimation of time is mediated by attentional processing. In Experiment 1, variations in the demands placed on attentional resources produced substantial differences in the subjective estimates of identical length intervals occurring within a hypnotic context. In Experiment 2, attentional manipulation was assessed in both hypnotic and waking contexts. Time judgments were again found to vary with attentional demands but not with hypnotic context. The results are consistent with a busy beaver hypothesis, which holds that hypnotic, as well as nonhypnotic, time estimates are a by-product of the attentional processing demands of the task.