Test of the Dissipation Hypothesis of Hypnotic Amnesia

Abstract

The hypothesis that hypnotic amnesia dissipates spontaneously with time was investigated by systematically increasing the time period between two amnesia-challenge trials. Retest subjects received two amnesia-challenge trials without an intervening pause. Short-delay subjects received a 1-min. pause between the two challenges, while Long-delay subjects received a 2-min. pause between challenges. All subjects recalled significantly more target material on the second trial than on the first. However, this increment in recall was unrelated to the length of time between challenges. These results are inconsistent with the dissipation hypothesis of hypnotic amnesia.