Posthypnotic amnesia as disrupted retrieval.

'1'he process of remembering during post-hypnotic amnesia was investigated by exploring the organization of recalled material in subjects displaying only partial amnesia. During three standardized hypnosis scales, suggestions of posthypnotic amnesia were administered to 112 subjects. Hypnolizahle subjects tended to recall the scale items in random chronological order, compared to the relatively sequential recall of insusceptible subjects. The difference in temporal sequencing of recall during amnesia indicates that, for the hypnotizable subject, posthypnotic amnesia is characterized primarily by a disruption or disorganization of part of the recall process, leaving other aspects of memory processing relatively unimpaired. These results suggest a resolution of the apparent paradox between the subjective reports of amnesic subjects and the objective evidence that the apparently forgotten memories remain available for other cognitive operations.