Harold J. Johnson

Absorption and attitude towards hypnosis: a moderator analysis.

Abstract 2 factors which have been found to correlate to a small degree with susceptibility are (a) an individuals attitude toward being hypnotized and (b) an individuals capacity for subjective involvement in an experience (absorption). The present study was an attempt to replicate previous findings by Spanos and McPeake (1975) and to extend these findings to determine if there was a significant interaction between these 2 factors in their relationship to susceptibility. 99 Ss (65 females and 34 males) completed the absorption questionnaire of Tellegen (1979) and the attitude questionnaire of Barber and Calverley (1966). Their hypnotic susceptibility was assessed with the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (Shor & E. Orne, 1962). Attitude and absorption were found to have small positive correlations with susceptibility, results which corroborate previous research. The multiple regression analyses indicated that there were no significant interactions between the factors of attitude, ...

Unimanual tactile anomia consequent to corpus callosotomy: Reduction of anomic deficit under hypnosis

Abstract Unimanual tactile anomia for objects palpated with the left-hand was studied in a 28-year-old callosotomy patient. Previous assessment of this patient Larrabee et al ., [9]) and two currently reported assessments without inducing hypnosis showed marked anomic deficit. A series of assessments conducted under hypnosis showed substantially improved naming ability, especially in hypnotic sessions suggesting that the patient did not feel like speaking and that speaking was difficult. Among the possible mediators of this reduction of anomic impairment one can suggest factors such as motivational and attentional enhancements, suppression of left hemisphere interference, and even right hemisphere speech facilitation under hypnosis. These and other results also suggest that an hypothesized right hemisphere dominance during hypnosis may be accurate and possibly more obvious in callosotomy patients than in normal persons.

Finger pulse amplitude and frontalis EMG biofeedback effects of single- and two-system training

The relationship between finger pulse amplitude (PA) and frontalis EMG was studied first by looking at general physiological changes accompanying successful bidirectional PA control. Seven successful subjects were then asked to produce two patterns of PA and EMG (PAincEMGdec and PAdecEMGdec) while receiving both PA and frontalis EMG biofeedback. Results indicate subjects can easily produce the differentiation pattern of PAdecEMGdec but cannot produce the integration pattern of PAincEMGdec. These rather paradoxical results may indicate subjects were using an “attentional” rather than “arousal” strategy for controlling PA and have implications for the use of peripheral vasomotor training as a general relaxation technique.

A psychophysiological assessment battery.

This research project was the first step in the development of a psychophysiological assessment battery. The battery consisted of eight tasks that have a history of use within the field of psychophysiology. These tasks were examined on a nonpathological, physically healthy sample. This sample was administered the assessment battery three times over the course of 16 weeks. The response systems of HR, SC, RR, TPA, and FPA were examined. Two major research questions were then examined. The first question was whether a subject would display a stable physiological profile on the assessment battery across the three administrations. The second question was whether there would be individual differences in physiological profiles on the assessment battery. These differences were examined in terms of individual response stereotypy (IRS) and stimulus response specificity (SRS). Depending on the task, from 30 to 100% of the subjects displayed stable physiological profiles across administrations. Twenty-five subjects displayed a high degree of SRS. Five subjects displayed a high degree of IRS.