Aptitude for trance, task generalizability, and incongruity response in hypnosis

Current theorizing about the process of "tolerance of logical incongruity" in hypnosis suggests that (a) aptitude for trance will be postively related to its occurrence, and (b) paradoxical behavior will manifest itself relatively consistently across different kinds of tasks presumed to measure the process. In a test of these predictions, 6 independent sets of 12 college students preselected for susceptibility to hypnosis (Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A), were allocated to a 3 by 2 (Aptitude for Hypnosis by Instruction) factorial design. High-, medium-, and low-aptitude Ss were given either standard hypnotic or motivated waking imagination instructions, Ss being tested on 5 neutral (no incongruity) and 7 experimental items measuring incongruity. Results show that aptitude for trance determined incongruity response among both waking and hypnotic Ss, but that tolerance of incongruity could not reasonably be represented on currently accepted tests as a cognitive trait that exerts stable, enduring effects. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)