Hypnotic Induction Profiles, Contextual Innuendo, and Delayed Intrusion Errors for a Narrative: Searching for Mediating Variables

Abstract

18 young men and 18 women listened to an ambiguous narrative concerning the nocturnal experiences of a young boy and then, after an inventory on hypnotic induction and a dichotic word-listening task, were asked to estimate the prevalence of child abuse or abduction by aliens (a third group served as controls). One week later the subjects were asked to reconstruct the narrative. Scores for suggestibility, estimates of prevalence, the sense of a presence during the first sitting and less cerebral lateralization were loaded on the same factor. Although the three groups did not differ with respect to numbers of literal memories, the groups who were given either one of the two innuendos also included an additional 11% of inferences and paraphrases which were considered erroneous reconstructions of the memory of the narrative.