Durability of Posthypnotic Suggestions: Type of Suggestion and Difficulty Level

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of Difficulty Level and Type of Suggestion upon the durability of posthypnotic suggestion over an 8-week period. Seventy-eight highly susceptible subjects selected by both the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility: Form A (HGSHS:A) and Stanford Hypnotic Scale of Susceptibility: Form C (SHSS:C) were assigned to six groups (two levels of Difficulty x three Types of Suggestion). S's were tested for posthypnotic suggestion at 1, 3, 6, and 8 weeks. A 2 × 3 × 4 (Difficulty × Suggestion × Time) factorial ANOVA was conducted, with Time treated as a repeated-measure. The outcome variable at each time was either pass or fail for relevant suggestion. We found a signficant Time effect, a significant Difficulty effect, and a significant Time × Difficulty interaction. Fewer subjects passed the difficult suggestions than passed the easy suggestions; fewer passed suggestions at a later time; and the decay in pass rate was more pronounced for the easy suggestion condition, due largely to the higher initial pass rate. Type of Suggestion was not significant, nor were any of the other interactions. Clinical implications were discussed.