CONTEXTUAL EFFECTS ON PRIMING DURING HYPNOTIC AMNESIA

Two experiments assessed the hypothesis that hypnotic amnesia results in a dissociation between episodic and semantic components of memory and that memories for which subjects are amnesic on episodic tasks are primed for use on semantic tasks. Experiment 1 tested subjects on two episodic memory tasks (recall and recognition) and one semantic task (spelling). Results replicated previous research and indicated that material for which subjects exhibited amnesia on the episodic tasks was generated on the semantic task. In Experiment 2 the wording of the amnesia suggestion was modified in an attempt to manipulate the degree of priming exhibited by amnesic subjects. One group of subjects received a modified suggestion which implied that amnesia should extend to other types of memory tasks. This modification to the suggestion resulted in a decrease in the priming effect on the spelling task. Implications of these results for theories of hypnotic amnesia are discussed. © 1990.