Hypnosis, task-motivating instructions, and learning performance.

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Abstract
Forty subjects, including 30 who were previously rated as suggestible and 10 as nonsuggestible, were pretested and then retested on equivalent forms of 3 learning tasks: digit symbol substitution, memory for words, and abstract reasoning. All Ss received the pretests in the same way. The 30 suggestible subjects were retested under 1 of the following 3 experimental treatments with 10 subjects assigned at random to each treatment: task-motivating instruction, hypnotic induction procedure with task-motivating instructions, and control. The 10 nonsuggestible subjects were retested under a task-motivating-instructions treatment. Analyses of covariance indicated that: task-motivating instructions given alone or following a hypnotic induction procedure did not significantly affect performance on the memory for words or abstract reasoning tasks; and task-motivating instructions produced a comparable enhancement of performance on the digit symbol substitution task in hypnotized and nonhypnotized subjects and in suggestible and nonsuggestible subjects.