Sixty-six subjects were tested on a new scale for evaluating "hypnotic-like" experiences (The Creative Imagination Scale), which includes ten standardized test-suggestions (e.g. suggestions for arm heaviness, finger anesthesia, time distortion, and age regression). The subjects were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups (Think-With Instructions, trance induction, and Control), with 22 subjects to each group. The new Cognitive-Behavioral Theory predicted that subjects exposed to preliminary instructions designed to demonstrate how to think and imagine along with the suggested themes (Think-With Instructions) would be more responsive to test-suggestions for anesthesia, time distortion, age regression, and so on, than subjects exposed to a trance-induction procedure. On the other hand, the traditional Trance State Theory predicted that a trance induction would be more effective than Think-With Instructions in enhancing responses to such suggestions. Subjects exposed to the Think-With Instructions obtained significantly higher scores on the test-suggestions than those exposed either to the traditional trance-induction procedure or to the control treatment. Scores of subjects who received the trance-induction procedure were not significantly different from those of the subjects who received the control treatment. The results thus supported the new Cognitive-Behavioral Theory and contradicted the traditional Trance State Theory of hypnosis. Two recent experiments, by De Stefano and by Katz, confirmed the above experimental results and offered further support for the Cognitive-Behavioral Theory. In both recent experiments, subjects randomly assigned to a "Think-With Instructions" treatment were more responsive to test-suggestions than those randomly assigned to a traditional trance-induction treatment.

Cognition↗

PubMed1977

Cognitive control of pain: four serendipitous results.

The experiment was designed to determine whether specific cognitive strategies are effective in reducing pain. Subjects were tested either on cold pain or pressure pain. Although the cognitive strategies did not significantly alter pain tolerance or pain intensity, the following four findings emerged: (a) males and females responded in a similar manner to the painful stimuli, (b) both the experimental subjects and the controls had surprisingly high tolerance of pain, (c) subjects typically generated their own thoughts and images to control pain, and (d) subjects responded to cold pain and to pressure pain in a similar manner.

Cognition↗

PubMed1976