Ronald E. Shor

Norms on the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A

Abstract Norms are presented on an adaptation for group administration with self-report scoring of Weitzenhoffer and Hilgards Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form A. Comparisons are made between a sample of 132 undergraduates given the new group-administered version and four reference samples including the original Stanford University normative group. Findings indicate that the group-administered version yields norms congruent with the individually-administered original. Diagnostic evaluations of hypnotic depth after one or more additional hypnotic training sessions tentatively indicate that the adapted scale is an effective predictor of subsequent hypnotic depth.

Physiological effects of painful stimulation during hypnotic analgesia under conditions designed to minimize anxiety.

Abstract A statistidy powerful experimental test of the phymological effects of painful etimulation during hypnotic analgesia was conducted under conditions designed to minimize anxiety. From the findings of no sgnificant differences between the experimental conditions, the plausible interpretation was advanced that, inasmuch as the subjective experience of pain is eliminated during hypnotic analgesia, those physiological reactions do not occur which would otherwise ordinarily result from the stressful or threatening qualities of the painful stimulation. It was further advanced, however, that anything else which minimizes the incidental anxiety component of the total pain experience–such as ego-protective procedures in the waking state–can have an effect on physiological responses to painful stimulation aimilar to that of hypnotic analgesia.

The processing of conceptual information on spatial directions from pictorial and linguistic symbols

Abstract An analysis was made in a sample of 30 S s of the processing of spatial information when expressed in pictorial and linguistic (verbal) symbolic representations. Outline drawings of arrows pointing in the directions of up, down, right, and left were compounded with the word names for these directions printed within the arrows. A set of predictions were confirmed including (1) that it takes more time to name the arrow directions than to read the words and (2) that an interference phenomenon can be produced using mismatched spatial symbols similar to the color-word interference phenomenon of the Stroop test. A number of lines of further investigation are presented.

The three-factor theory of hypnosis as applied to the book-reading fantasy and to the concept of suggestion

Abstract It is maintained that many of the conflicting viewpoints in theories of hypnosis parallel the descriptive complexity of the phenomena. A three-factor theory of hypnosis is surveyed in which hypnotic depth is conceived as a complex of 3 separate but complementary processes or dimensions. The theory is then used to illuminate the book-reading fantasy and the concept of suggestion.

Spontaneous recovery of memory during posthypnotic amnesia.

Abstract Repeated testing of posthypnotic amnesia indicates that some Ss, initially responsive to the suggestion, show appreciable recovery of memory before the pre-arranged signal is given to cancel the amnesia. Comparison of Ss who received 2 successive memory tests during amnesia with others who received only a single test preceded by a distracting activity indicated that the recovery effect was attributable to the passage of time rather than to prior testing. There were wide individual differences in the extent of recovery, with some Ss maintaining a fairly dense amnesia on the second test. Those Ss who maintained amnesia were more hypnotizable, and showed a denser initial amnesia, than those who breached it. An analysis of subjective reports lent credence to the notion of partial response among some hypnotizable Ss who fail to meet a standard criterion of complete amnesia, and pseudoamnesia among some insusceptible Ss who appear to pass it. Some Ss reported voluntarily engaging in cognitive activity ...

Recall and recognition during posthypnotic amnesia.

Abstract Posthypnotic amnesia appears to be associated with a temporary deficit in remembering. In order to determine the nature of this memory impairment more closely, 2 studies were conducted comparing recall and recognition testing of posthypnotic amnesia during a standardized scale of hypnotic susceptibility. Experiment 1, employing a group procedure with 453 naive Ss, indicated that recognition testing might abolish amnesia. Experiment 2, in which 50 experienced Ss were tested individually, confirmed the general superiority of recognition to recall during amnesia, but revealed a significant persisting deficit in retention on the recognition test, compared to recall after amnesia was lifted by the reversibility cue. The finding of relative rather than absolute superiority of recognition to recall during amnesia is tentatively interpreted in terms of 3 competing accounts of memory: two-stage theory, episodic ecphory, and levels of processing.

Personality Correlates of Hypnotic Susceptibility: Needs for Achievement and Autonomy, Self-monitoring, and Masculinity-Femininity

Abstract A total of 1300 subjects in six samples completed a short battery of personality questionnaires and the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (HGSHS:A). Measured hypnotic susceptibility correlated significantly with scores on Tellegens Absorption Scale (mean r = .27), but not with the Achievement and Autonomy Scales of the PRF (mean r = .11 and .09, respectively), or with Snyders Self-monitoring Scale (mean r = .01). Subject gender did not moderate the correlations between personality and hypnosis; nor did achievement, autonomy, or self-monitoring scores moderate the correlation between absorption and hypnotizability. Overall, women scored slightly higher than men on HGSHS:A. A further analysis employing Bems Sex-Role Inventory showed only that the hypnotizability scores of undifferentiated men and women were depressed relative to their androgynous counterparts.

Expectancies of being influenced and hypnotic performance

Abstract From the theoretical viewpoint that complex interactions serve to attenuate potent dependencies between expectancies of being influenced and later actual hypnotic performance, normative data are presented on 164 previously unhypnotized undergraduates. Ss filled out 2 questionnaires on their expectancies prior to the administration of the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A. The Personal Predictions questionnaire asked for self-ratings of expected hypnotic performance; the General Estimates questionnaire asked for ratings of the expected performance of a general college population. The 2 questionnaires were derived from the hypnosis scale in such a way that expectancies were precisely related to actual hypnotic performance, item by item, using a common scale of measurement. As had been predicted, correlations were generally small but mean differences were sizable. The findings are interpreted in terms of the theoretical viewpoint, and research applications of the 2 questionnaire...

An Experimental Analysis of the Chevreul Pendulum Illusion

An investigation was performed, with the use of 60 male and female college students, to quantify the Chevreul pendulum illusory effect, the tendency of a small pendulum, when suspended from the hand and imaginatively concentrated upon, to oscillate seemingly of its own accord. By means of a time exposure photographic measurement technique, strong parametric influences of the pendulums sinusoidal motion were isolated. It was found that the pendulum effect was enhanced when (a) attentional capacity remained undivided, (b) the amount of musculature used to suspend the pendulum was at a maximum, (c) oscillating visual and auditory external stimuli were present, and (d) females were Ss. In addition, the visual stimulus was found to be superior to its auditory counterpart. The relevance of ideomotor and visual capture interpretations of covert muscle processes in the pendulum illusion was discussed.

Information Processing Analysis of the Chevreul Pendulum Illusion.

An information processing investigation was performed to quantify the Chevreul pendulum effect: the tendency of a small pendulum, when suspended from the hand and imaginatively concentrated on, to oscillate seemingly of its own accord. Using a time exposure photographic measurement technique, electronically automated visual and auditory imaginal prompts were presented to the subject during imaginal processing tasks. It was found that the pendulum effect was enhanced when vision of actual pendulum oscillations was permitted and visual or auditory spatially oscillating stimuli were present. Visual spatially oscillating stimuli were superior to their auditory counterparts. Results were discussed in terms of ideomotor and visual capture interpretations of signal and imaginal processing.