Hypnosis and false memories.

Abstract

We investigated the effects of attitudes toward hypnosis and hypnotic instruction on false memories per the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm. We selected participants on the basis of their scores on the Attitudes Toward Hypnosis Questionnaire (positive vs. negative) and assigned them to three experimental conditions. A nonhypnotic condition (i.e., a typical DRM paradigm) was compared with two hypnotic conditions in which a hypnotic instruction suggesting that participants focus on DRM lists was provided before either the learning phase (hypnosis-encoding condition) or the recognition phase (hypnosis-retrieval condition). We found that the instruction provided before the encoding reduced the proportion of false memories relative to the hypnosis-retrieval and nonhypnotic conditions. Accordingly, a hypnotic instruction can at least partially override the automaticity associated with the DRM effect at encoding. Individuals with positive attitudes produced more false recognitions than those with negative attitudes. These data add to the growing body of evidence confirming that the persistent effects of posthypnotic false memories are partially related to beliefs and attitudes about hypnosis. Introducing hypnosis into research on memory illusion could improve our understanding of controlled and automatic cognitive processes.

False Memories in Individuals With Stabilized Schizophrenia

“…However, fluency is not a stringent enough criterion for a substantial rejection of the critical words. In fact, fluency could well be the criterion that leads healthy participants to accept lures or studied words as having been encountered before (see Robin et al, 2018). Nevertheless, in line with Whittlesea and Williams’s discrepancy-attribution hypothesis (2001), we can assume that the fluency with which the critical lure was activated in the memory during the recognition test increased its credibility and thus the participant’s certainty that it had been presented.…”

Who Sees UFOs? The Relationship Between Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Sightings and Personality Factors

“…Sleep paralysis (Sharpless & Doghramji, 2015) is a well-documented potential factor that can explain some accounts of alien abductions (Clancy, 2005;McNally & Clancy, 2005;McNally et al, 2004). Hypnosis has been known to create false memories (Robertson, 2013;Robin et al, 2018). Human memory is prone to various cognitive errors that can lead to false beliefs or memories (Loftus, 2003;McGaugh, 2003).…”