Biomedical subjects

K M McConkey

Publications and source records attributed to K M McConkey.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

Indexing the experience of sex change in hypnosis and imagination.

The authors suggested a change of sex to high hypnotizable participants in hypnosis and imagination conditions and indexed the subjects' experiences with a continuous, concurrent behavioral measure that involved them turning a dial to indicate changes in the strength of the suggested effect. In addition, the researchers indexed the participants' experiences through retrospective ratings of realness, involuntariness, and active thinking. The dial rating showed that the onset of the experience was more rapid for hypnotic than for imagination participants. Moreover, there were differences in the relationship between dial ratings and retrospective ratings across the conditions as well as across the suggestion, test, and cancellation phases of the item. The findings are discussed in terms of how the dial method provides a better understanding of suggested sex change as well as a better understanding of the private experience of hypnosis and imagination.

Adult↗

PubMed2001

Posthypnotic responding: the relevance of suggestion and test congruence.

Thirty real, hypnotized subjects and 34 simulating, unhypnotized subjects were given either a suggestion to respond when they heard a cue (general) or a suggestion to respond when they heard a cue after hypnosis (posthypnotic). Half the subjects were given the cue during hypnosis (hypnotic test) and half were given it after hypnosis (posthypnotic test). Those who were given the cue during hypnosis were also given it after hypnosis. Between- and within-group comparisons were made of subjects' behavioral responses, latencies to respond, and ratings of experiential compulsion. The findings indicated that subjects' behavior and experience were influenced by congruence between information conveyed by the suggestion and the test about when and how they should respond.

Adult↗

PubMed2001

Information processing during hypnotically suggested sex change.

During hypnotically suggested sex change, 36 real (12 virtuoso and 24 high hypnotizable) and 18 simulating (low hypnotizable) individuals listened to a story involving a male and a female character. They subsequently reported their experience and recall of the story. Virtuosos were less likely than highs and simulators to identify with the character consistent with their suggested sex. However, virtuosos recalled more information about the character consistent with their suggested sex than did highs and simulators. The authors discuss the findings in terms of attention and the selective processing of information during hypnosis. They conclude that character identification was not the major factor that influenced the recall of virtuosos and suggest that virtuosos may have processed aspects of the information in a more self-referential way and thus encoded and recalled it more effectively.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

Specific autobiographical memory following hypnotically induced mood state.

This study investigated the impact of hypnotically induced mood on the specificity of autobiographical memory. High (n = 24) and low (n = 21) hypnotizable participants were administered a hypnotic induction for sad, neutral, or happy mood and were asked to retrieve specific autobiographical memories in response to positive and negative cue words. Whereas high hypnotizable participants in the sad condition provided fewer specific memories in response to positive rather than negative cues, those in the neutral and happy conditions responded similarly to positive and negative cues. Findings suggest that impaired recall of specific memories may be mediated by state factors associated with sad mood. These results point to the utility of hypnotic mood induction as a means to experimentally investigate the relationship between mood and autobiographical memory.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Measuring change in the subjective experience of hypnosis.

The authors indexed the subjective experience of hypnosis through the use of a continuous behavioral measure of the strength of the participant's experience at the time of the suggestion. Specifically, subjects turned a dial to indicate changes in their experience of the suggested effect during that experience. Thirty-three high, 47 medium, and 28 low hypnotizable subjects were asked to use the dial during the suggestion, test, and cancellation phases of three hypnotic items: arm levitation, arm rigidity, and anosmia. The pattern of ratings differed according to the nature of the suggestion. Also, across the items, subjects who passed according to behavioral criteria experienced the suggested effect to a greater degree than those who failed. Notably, whereas the ratings of highs and mediums did not differ for any item, they differed from lows on all three items. The authors discuss the implications of these findings in terms of the potential for this method to provide insight into the experience of hypnosis.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Hypnotic and posthypnotic suggestion: finding meaning in the message of the hypnotist.

High hypnotizable subjects were asked a question before, during, and after hypnosis and were given a suggestion before, during, or after hypnosis to rub their earlobe when they were asked this question. In this way, the experiment placed a question that required a verbal response in contrast with a suggestion that only sometimes required a behavioral response. Subjects were more likely to respond behaviorally when the question was associated with the suggestion but more likely to respond verbally when the question was a social interaction; furthermore, the likelihood of subjects responding behaviorally and/or verbally shifted across the tests with the changing message of the hypnotist. The findings highlight hypnotized subjects' attempts to interpret the hypnotist's communications and their ability to resolve ambiguity in the nexus of those messages in a way that promotes their hypnotic behavior and experience.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Autobiographical remembering and forgetting: what can hypnosis tell us?

Autobiographical memory can be characterized in terms of its reconstructive nature, its relationship with self-identity, and its shifting accessibility. Hypnosis research on personal memory has focused for the most part on its reconstructive nature. The authors examine selected contributions of hypnosis research to understand the nature and function of autobiographical memory and consider further ways in which hypnosis can make specific contributions to theoretical understanding and empirical inquiry into personal recollection. The authors provide some examples of research on various aspects of hypnosis and autobiographical memory and suggest particular ways for adding to the value and impact of such work. They argue that hypnosis researchers should continue to look for ways in which they can demonstrate and communicate the vigor and relevance of their work.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Posthypnotic responding: knowing when to stop helps to keep it going.

The authors examined the effect of specifying (cue) or not specifying (no cue) the cancellation cue for posthypnotic suggestion. Responding was indexed on formal, embedded, informal, and postexperimental tests. Thirty-six real, hypnotized participants and 20 simulating participants took part in an application of the real-simulating paradigm. Responding declined across the four tests. Real participants in the cue condition maintained responding longer than simulators in the cue condition, and they also maintained responding longer than reals and simulators in the no cue condition. The findings highlight the interactional influence of individual, interpersonal, and situational factors in posthypnotic responding and underscore the active involvement of individuals in hypnotically initiated events.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Action and desire in posthypnotic responding.

The authors examined the impact of suggestion focus and test type on the posthypnotic responding of high hypnotizable participants. The posthypnotic suggestion focused on either behavior (action) or experience (desire); posthypnotic responding was indexed in a formal test, an embedded test, and an informal test. In Experiment 1, the posthypnotic suggestion involved a motor act. Participants given the action suggestion were more likely to respond completely on the formal test than participants given the desire suggestion. Also, responding declined across the three tests; suggestion focus influenced responding on the informal but not the embedded test. In Experiment 2, the posthypnotic suggestion involved a verbal act. In contrast to Experiment 1, participants given the action or desire suggestion responded similarly on the formal test. As in Experiment 1, responding declined across the three tests; however, suggestion focus did not influence responding on the embedded or the informal tests. The findings highlight the meaningful effects of changes in what the hypnotist says, what participants are asked to do, and how their responses are assessed.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

Hypnotic sex change: creating and challenging a delusion in the laboratory.

The authors suggested a change of sex to virtuoso, high-hypnotizable, and low-hypnotizable simulating participants in an application of the real-simulating paradigm of hypnosis. The experiences of sex change that participants reported during hypnosis were challenged through procedures of contradiction and confrontation. Behavioral and self-report data indicated that virtuosos experienced a transient delusion about their sex that was compelling and resistant to challenge. Implications are discussed for investigations of delusion through the use of hypnosis in the laboratory and for understanding delusion in the clinical setting.

Delusions↗

PubMed1992

Reports of real and false memories: the relevance of hypnosis, hypnotizability, and context of memory test.

Thirty high- and 30 low-hypnotizable subjects saw slides of a purse snatching and then imagined seeing the slides in hypnosis or waking conditions. The experimenter suggested the offender had a moustache (true), wore a scarf (false), and picked up flowers (false). Memory was tested by the experimenter after the suggestion, by another experimenter during an inquiry session, and again by the 2nd experimenter after the experimenter appeared to end the session. Hypnotizability, but not hypnosis, was associated with false memory reports; more high-than low-hypnotizable subjects reported false memories. The context of testing influenced true and false memory reports; fewer reports occurred in an informal rather than a formal test context.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

Trance logic in hypnosis and imagination.

In 2 experiments we investigated trance logic, or the tolerance of logical incongruity, in age regression and hallucination. Experiment 1 tested 21 hypnotizable and 19 unhypnotizable subjects in an application of the real-simulating model of hypnosis. Experiment 2 tested 26 high and 19 low imagery ability subjects in an adaptation of the model to the imagination context. Subjects' experiences were investigated through the experiential analysis technique. More real than simulating subjects displayed trance logic during age regression, but they did not differ on the major measures of trance logic during hallucination. This pattern of responding occurred in both the hypnosis and the imagination contexts. Subjects' comments suggested that completeness of and belief in age regression or hallucination may play some role in trance logic. The importance of understanding trance logic from the subject's point of view is discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1991

Absorption, openness to experience, and hypnotizability.

Absorption, a correlate of hypnotizability, is conceptually related to openness to experience. Study 1 found no evidence that gender moderated the correlation between absorption and hypnotizability, or of nonlinear trends. Study 2 showed that openness was factorially complex, and that absorption was related to imaginative involvement, but not to social-political liberalism. Study 3 found small quadratic trends in the relations between these variables and hypnotizability; hypnotizability was related to imaginative involvement, but not liberalism. Study 4 confirmed differential correlations between absorption subscales and hypnotizability but failed to confirm the nonlinear trends. Implications for future studies of the correlates of hypnotizability, and for the nature of the "fifth factor" in personality structure, are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1990

Hypnotic blindness and the relevance of cognitive style.

Real, hypnotized and simulating, unhypnotized subjects were instructed to use either a constructive or a concentrative cognitive style when attempting to respond to a suggestion for hypnotic blindness; also, some subjects were administered the suggestion without any instructions about cognitive style. More reals who received the constructive rather than the concentrative instructions reported complete blindness; a similar number of simulators who received the different instructions reported complete blindness. Moreover, reals who received the constructive instruction reported a more rapidly developed belief in their blindness. The findings are discussed in terms of the relevance of cognitive style to subjects' reports of hypnotic blindness, and the possibility is considered that both reports of and belief in hypnotic blindness are determined in part by cognitive style.

Adult↗

PubMed1989

Hypnotic blindness: a behavioral and experiential analysis.

This research examined the influence of visual information on a decision task that subjects were administered during hypnotically suggested blindness. Real, hypnotizable subjects and simulating, unhypnotizable subjects were tested in two experiments. Experiment 1 focused on behavioral responses, and Experiment 2 focused on experiential reactions. In both experiments, the findings indicated that the behavioral responses of reals were influenced by visual information despite their reported blindness. The behavioral responses of reals and simulators were essentially similar. The experiential data in Experiment 2 provided information about the phenomenal nature of subjects' reported blindness. The experimental reactions of reals and simulators were essentially different. The research is discussed in terms of the issues that need to be considered in the development of a model of hypnotic blindness.

Adult↗

PubMed1989

Visual conversion disorder: a case analysis of the influence of visual information.

We examined the influence of visual information on a decision task that was administered to an individual with monocular visual conversion disorder. Findings indicated that his performance was influenced by the visual information and by motivation instructions. The findings are discussed in terms of a model of hysterical blindness that recognizes the interplay of cognitive and motivational processes.

Adult↗

PubMed1989

Hypnotic blindness, awareness, and attribution.

Examined whether performance on a spelling task would be influenced by visual information in the reported absence of hypnotized subjects' awareness of that information. Experiment 1 visually presented uncommon spellings of homophones to subjects before and during a suggestion for hypnotic blindness, and subsequently tested subjects' spelling of the homophones. Words presented during hypnotic blindness influenced subjects' spelling performance. Subjects' attributions of their performance did not involve awareness of the homophones. Experiment 2 used the nonexperiment methodology to examine the impact of demand characteristics and indicated that the performance attributions of subjects of Experiment 1 could not be explained in these terms. The discussion focuses on implicit perception in hypnotic blindness and on the relevance of attributions about behavioral performance on hypnotic phenomena.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1989

Hypnotic emotions and physical sensations: a real-simulating analysis.

Real hypnotizable Ss and simulating unhypnotizable Ss were administered a suggestion for either happiness, emotional neutrality, or sadness. The emotion was assessed through subjective and behavioral measures taken once before, twice during, and once after the emotion. Findings indicated that emotionally congruent changes occurred in both self-report and performance measures. Ss' physical sensations during the emotion were assessed on a 34-item self-report scale. It was demonstrated that Ss in the happy versus sad conditions reported different physical sensations; in particular, they reported different facial sensations. The responses of real hypnotizable Ss, however, were essentially paralleled by those of simulating unhypnotizable Ss. Therefore, the possibility exists that hypnotized Ss may have been responding on the basis of social demands. The findings are discussed in terms of the effects of the emotion suggestions, and the implications of real and simulating Ss displaying similar affective responses.

Adult↗