NCJ Number
95066
Journal
Journal of Police Science and Administration Volume: 12 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1984) Pages: 277-286
Date Published
1984
Length
10 pages
Annotation
An experiment examining recall of a simulated crime by police trainees unexpectedly found that posthypnotic suggestions for recall did not have greater impact for recall did not have greater impact on subjects in deeper trances than lighter subjects, that the concept of depth of trance could not be reliably measured, and that hypnotized subjects had greater recall than a comparison group.
Abstract
The subjects were 100 volunteers attending a southeastern training institute. They were divided into an experimental and a control group using random procedures. They viewed a 2-minute training film depicting a robbery of a gasoline station. The experimental subjects were hypnotized using progressive relaxation with a metronome for deepening. Direct and indirect suggestions were given to stimulate recall and assess the depth of the trance. The study's failure to confirm hypotheses which are widely accepted by experienced field investigators implied several basic methodological problems: (1) the inability to manipulate the dependent variable, hypnotic trance; (2) the unintended induction of hypnosis in the control group; and (3) the emergence of alternate theories to explain hypnotic-type phenomena. Data tables and a list of 28 references are supplied.