Effects of suggestibility and hypnosis on accurate and distorted retrieval from memory.

Sheehan, Peter W.; Tilden, Jan

doi:10.1037/0278-7393.9.2.283

Cited by 62 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…These results suggest that, in the absence of memory facilitation instructions, hypnosis may have a small facilitatory effect on face identification, however, relative to controls, the positive effects of hypnosis are accompanied by significantly increased confidence in incorrect responses as shown in the wider literature (Sheehan and Tilden, 1983;. Clearly then, there may still be problems associated with the use of hypnosis as an investigative tool, even in this shorter form that contains no suggestions for memory facilitation.…”

Section: Hypnosis and Face Recognitionmentioning

confidence: 78%

New directions in forensic hypnosis: facilitating memory with a focused meditation technique

Wagstaff

Brunas-Wagstaff

Cole

et al. 2004

Contemporary Hypnosis

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In the late 1970s and early 1980s considerable publicity was given to the use of hypnosis as a technique to facilitate witness' memory in police investigations. As empirical evidence mounted, however, a number of limitations and disadvantages emerged with regard to the use of hypnosis in this role. As a consequence, hypnosis as an aid in forensic investigations is now treated with considerable caution and scepticism by many authorities, including the police. However, the present paper re-examines some of the procedures employed in hypnotic interviewing that might still be useful in the development of brief memory facilitation procedures. In particular, a brief focused breathing meditation (FM) technique is described that uses elements common to hypnotic induction, but divorced from the context label of 'hypnosis'. An experiment is described using this technique to aid face identification. As in other recent studies conducted by the authors, this procedure showed a memory facilitation effect, though without the increase in false positive errors familiar to more traditional hypnosis techniques; indeed, the trends were for FM to produce fewer false positive errors. Implications are discussed.

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Section: Hypnosis and Face Recognitionmentioning

confidence: 78%

New directions in forensic hypnosis: facilitating memory with a focused meditation technique

Wagstaff

Brunas-Wagstaff

Cole

et al. 2004

Contemporary Hypnosis

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“…Of greater practical consequence, hypnosis may distort the memory process. It has been suggested that hypnotized subjects (a) introduce fabrications into their reports and exhibit increased error rates (Diamond, 1980;Dywan & Bowers, 1984;Orne, 1979), (b) are more susceptible to leading questions (Putnam, 1979;Sanders & Simmons, 1983), and (c) are more likely to view distorted memories as being accurate (Orne, 1961;Sheehan & Tilden, 1983). In addition, the accuracy of information generated under hypnosis appears to be unrelated to the witnesses' confidence in the information (Zelig & Beidleman, 1981).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Eyewitness memory enhancement in the police interview: Cognitive retrieval mnemonics versus hypnosis.

Geiselman¹,

Fisher²,

MacKinnon³

et al. 1985

Journal of Applied Psychology

297

231

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This research compared the effectiveness of three interview procedures for optimizing eyewitness memory performance: (a) the "cognitive interview" based on memory-retrieval mnemonics from current memory theory, (b) the presently controversial hypnosis interview, and (c) the standard (control) police interview. These methods were evaluated empirically in a controlled, yet ecologically valid, laboratory setting. Eighty-nine subjects viewed police training films of simulated violent crimes and were questioned individually in interactive interviews 48 hours later by experienced law-enforcement personnel. Both the cognitive and hypnosis procedures elicited a significantly greater number of correct items of information from the subjects than did the standard interview. This result, which held even for the most critical facts from the films, was most pronounced for crime scenarios in which the density of events was high. The number of incorrect items of information generated did not differ across the three interview conditions. The observed memory enhancement was interpreted in terms of the memory-guidance techniques common to both the cognitive and hypnosis interviews. Neither differential questioning time nor heightened subject or interviewer motivation could explain the results.

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“…The main problem with secondary suggestibility has been that, while tests associated with it by Eysenck and Furneaux (1945) do not correlate with tests of primary suggestibility-a finding replicated by Sheehan and Tilden (1983)-they also fail to correlate with each other to any reliable degree (Grimes, 1948;Stukat, 1958;Evans, 1967). Grimes found, for example, that scores on a progressive weights test correlated only 0.19 with scores on a fidelity of report test.…”

Section: Primary and Secondary Suggestibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The suggestibility of child witnesses: A review

Baxter

1990

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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The idea that child witnesses are unreliable because of their high suggestibility is a common one. However, it is questionable if suggestibility can be attributed to individuals without considering the situational determinants of the phenomenon. This paper reviews studies of suggestibility in adults and children with particular reference to its determinants. The possibility that interview techniques might be developed which could enhance the reliability of child witnesses is considered.Within an adversarial system of justice the credibility of any witness testifying in a court of law is liable to be challenged during cross-examination. However, the credibility of a witness who is also a child faces additional challenges. One such is the belief expressed by many adults that children's testimony can readily be altered by what is said to them or by what questioners appear to require of them (cf. Ross, 1908; Lipmann, 1911;Andrews, 1964;Yarmey and Jones, 1983;Baxter and Davies, 1986). In other words, many adults, and hence many potential jurors, seem to believe that a major problem with child witnesses is their relatively high suggestibility.But what is the nature of suggestibility, and of children's suggestibility in particular? If it is a stable feature of childhood, analogous to a personality trait, then children's testimony should perhaps be distrusted as a matter of course. It may be that children are especially likely passively to absorb any information which appears to concern an event which they have witnessed, such that they will subsequently incorporate that information into their accounts of the event. This was apparently the view of Otis (1924), who argued that suggestibility is a response which:follows the stimulus directly, the subject being in a way an automaton. With adults the use of the higher centres is in abeyance while with children the development and use of the higher centres is not complete (p. 9).On the other hand, it may be that a main problem with child witnesses is that they are vulnerable to a much broader range of social pressures than are adults, such that this kind of pressure plays a disproportionately large role in determining children's responses to questioning. If this is the case then it may be that the reliability of children's testimony could be substantially enhanced by ensuring that , at least during formal questioning, social pressures on children to answer questions in particular ways are identified and minimized.

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Effects of suggestibility and hypnosis on accurate and distorted retrieval from memory.

Cited by 62 publications

References 12 publications

New directions in forensic hypnosis: facilitating memory with a focused meditation technique

New directions in forensic hypnosis: facilitating memory with a focused meditation technique

Eyewitness memory enhancement in the police interview: Cognitive retrieval mnemonics versus hypnosis.

The suggestibility of child witnesses: A review

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