On the Lack of Relationship between Hypnotizability and Response to Verbal Conditioning

Abstract

A positive correlation was found between classical conditioning and hypnotizability by Das (1958) and between operant verbal conditioning and an indirect measure of hypnotizability by Weiss, et al. (1960). The present study utilized a direct measure of hypnotizability and related it to operant verbal conditioning. The obtained correlation was essentially zero, a finding which failed to confirm the earlier results. It was speculated that by virtue of the procedures employed, hypnosis might well be more closely related to classical than to operant conditioning.