International Handbook of Clinical Hypnosis - E-Lib FK UWKS

52 INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK OF CLINICAL HYPNOSIS
subjects in hypnosis were appreciably less inclined to do as the hypnotist wanted
Sheehan, 1980). If this ®nding can be generalized to the pseudomemory test
situation, then pseudomemory might be expected to be less under reduced conditions
of rapport when the relationship between hypnotist and subject is appreciably
reduced or has broken down.
Generality ofFindings
With these speci®c ®ndings on pseudomemory aside, evidence across multiple
methodologies investigating memory distortion indicates sporadic effects for state
instruction, but very reliable effects for level of susceptibility, and some evidence
of an interaction between state instruction and aptitude for hypnosis. The effects
are quite pervasive for pseudomemory, for instance, across different experiments
using the same paradigm and the same basic sets of procedures. Table 4.1 sets out
the major inferences from the literature reviewed across different paradigms and
illustrates how some quite speci®c conclusions evidenced from pseudomemory do
generalize to other kinds of memory reporting as well see Sheehan, 1994).
For instance, it is clear across paradigms that hypnosis provides no guarantee to
assessing veracity. Although hypnosis is not inherently distorting, it can easily lead to
falsi®cation, error and confabulation. Hypnosis is likely to produce more information,
but it is not possible to determine in hypnosis, without later independent veri®cation,
which facts being recalled are true. Additional facts recalled, however, may be useful
clinically and forensically. The act of reporting, separate to the accuracy of what is
remembered, is typically one in which the hypnotized person is con®dent, but
con®dence both in hypnosis and in the waking state) should in no way be taken as a
reliable indicator of accurate memory. Overall, a subject's level of hypnotic skill is a
powerful determinant of the hypnotic creation of memory, and hypnotizability often
in pseudomemory, at least) interacts with the use of hypnotic instruction.
Past data clearly indicate that phenomena involve a mix of mediating processes.
Looking at the general program of work on memory in the hypnotic literature as
Table 4.1. Major inferences from experimental data drawn on the association between
memory and hypnosis
· No reliable memory enhancement effects occur either within single paradigms or across
them
· Memory distortion effects are not unique to hypnosis
· A number of variables exist adhering to context) that are in¯uential in determining
effects
· Patterns of effects depend on the means by which false information is communicated in
the test situation
· Hypnotic skill is especially in¯uential across different methodologies
· Con®dence, in particular, is in¯uential across paradigms with distorted memories
frequently being reported con®dently
Source: Adapted from Sheehan 1994).