COGS101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Capgras Delusion, Auditory Hallucination, Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder
2 Jun 2018
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Modelling Delusions with Hypnosis – Week 11:
Why use hypnosis?
• We use a hypnosis in an ‘instrumental’ way – we use this as a tool to
understand things we do not know in conditions
• Clinical conditions like delusions that are rare, it is hard to separate conditions
in some cases → so we use hypnosis (experimental control)
• This identifies symptoms and features of the conditions, work out what’s
going on so we can test theoretical ideas
What is hypnosis?
• The powerful hypnotist myth: this is not true, people with hypnosis still have
free will and can make decisions
• The everlasting myth: ‘you will keep responding until I tell you to stop’ –
people can end hypnosis for themselves
• The faking myth: ‘everyone fakes hypnosis’ – people are not motivated to
fake hypnosis for most parts, looking at brain activity it can prove such
• Hypnosis = a social interaction between two people → a hypnotist and a
subject
o The hypnotist offers suggestions to the subject which changes the way
that the subject experiences themselves and the world around them
o Hypnosis involves changes in attention, absorption and reality
monitoring
• We can think about hypnosis as a ‘procedure’
o First stage: Hypnotic induction – focus attention on hypnotist voice,
close your eyes, relax
o Second stage: Hypnotic items (suggestion, tests, cancellation) – can
suggest to people to hold out their arm and its getting heavier so they
can no longer hold it up. Test phase includes how much they lower
their arm, then cancellation – cancel their suggestion and say arm is no
longer heavier at all
o Third stage: Deinduction – count backwards from 20 to 1, gradually
people come back to their waking state
• Hypnotic induction:
o The induction may be viewed as –
▪ A ritual that defines the context as hypnotic
▪ Or a ‘switch’ that creates an altered state
o Is an induction necessary?
▪ Highs will respond in the absence of an induction
▪ Induction generates effects that happens faster and are more
compelling
o Precise nature is not important
▪ Can even involve cycling on an exercise bike (doesn’t
necessarily mean relaxation)
• Hypnotic suggestions:
o Hypnotic suggestions involve alterations in perception, memory,
action, thought and emotion
o Researchers may compare:
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▪ Suggestion vs. no suggestion (heavy arm vs. natural drop in
arm)
▪ Different versions of a suggestion e.g. forget specific life
events vs. forget entire lifetime period
▪ Hypnotic suggestions vs. non-hypnotic instruction (same as
suggestion but given during waking state not during hypnosis)
• Types of suggestions:
o Ideomotor – thoughts becoming actions
▪ Ask people to hold arms out in front of them and imagine
magnetic force pulling them together
▪ Suggesting an outstretched arm is too heavy to hold up
o Challenge – suggesting a particular state of affairs and then
challenging subjects to do the opposite
▪ Suggesting eyes are tightly shut together, then challenge them
by asking subjects to open eyes
o Cognitive/delusory – involve hallucinations or delusions
▪ Suggesting that a mosquito is buzzing around and landing on
their arm, biting them etc.
o Posthypnotic amnesia – forgetting
▪ Suggesting that after hypnosis, subjects will forget certain
events
• Tests of suggestions
o The test phase indexes impact on behaviour and experience
o Researchers often use multiple and/or different tests:
▪ Does responding persist over repeated tests? E.g. uncancelled
suggestions
▪ Does responding persist outside the hypnotic setting? E.g. in an
inquiry after the experiment
▪ Does the nature of the test influence responding? E.g. formal
vs. informal tests
• Formal test = suggested that subjects would scratch
their ear when hearing the word ‘experiment’, then after
you would ask them – how did you like that experiment
• Informal test = as they are leaving the lab, you would
say thanks for coming along today I hope you enjoyed
the experiment
• Can everyone be hypnotized?
o A person’s ability to be hypnotized is called hypnotisabiltiy
o There are individual differences in hypnotisability
o Hypnotisability is measured by standardized scales
▪ Approx. 12 suggestions
▪ Each suggestion scored as pass or fail (fail if they do not
experience the suggestion)
o Hypnotisability is total number of suggestions passed
• Hypnotisability scores:
o Hypnotisability is normally distributed in the population –
▪ 10-15% are high hypnotizable
▪ 70-80% are medium
▪ 10-15% are low hypnotizable (do not tend to respond to
hypnotic suggestions)
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