International Literature Reviews

Eisen, M.L., Oustinovskaya, M., Kistorian, R., Morgan, D.Y., & Mickes, L. (2008). The effect of question format on resistance to misleading postevent information and self-reports of events occurring during hypnosis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 56(2):198-213. The authors present this article about how hypnosis affects memory recall and memory reporting. The authors utilized a novel approach to this topic using a standardized tape-recorded version of the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (Harvard or HGSHS:A) as a springboard for further investigation of how misleading information received after an event (postevent information) might change a person’s memory and/or verbal memory reporting of the event. The Harvard is a highly regarded measure of hypnotic ability that assesses participants’ responsiveness to hypnotic experiences using 12 standardized hypnotic suggestions in a group format. The participants in the authors’ experiment were all given a modified version of the normal Harvard response form booklet at the end of the standardized administration of the Harvard’s main hypnotic procedures. All the participants received three additional questions asking about hypnotic phenomena and experimental hypnotic suggestions that were not actually employed during their administration of the Harvard. The questions in their response booklets were then varied in two conditions to examine the effect of questioning format on resistance to misleading postevent information. Half the participants were given the standard choices of responding which ask the participant whether they did or did not perform or experience the hypnotic suggestion. The other half of the participants was offered a third alternative response format to each question which was worded as “I do not remember this occurring.” The authors predicted that offering this third alternative choice would result in significantly less participants in this group endorsing that they experienced the three hypnotic suggestions which were never really employed in the study. The authors reported that participants who were offered the third alternative answer format were significantly less likely to endorse having experienced the false hypnotic suggestions. Interestingly, the participants in this condition in general INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE REVIEWS