Tossing the Baby With the (Magnetized) Bathwater: Commentary on Jacobson and Colleagues

Abstract

This article critiques two studies conducted by Jacobson and colleagues whose findings indicated that hypnosis hinders encoding and might not be useful in education. While their findings provide important information about hypnosis and its possible uses in teaching and learning, there are several important methodological and interpretive shortcomings that limit the applicability of the study. It is argued that the authors conflated some components of hypnotic phenomenology, as measured by the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory, and consequently failed to assess the hypnotic experience properly. This article argues that the encoding deficits produced by hypnosis may have resulted from the way hypnosis was used and other contextual factors, and highlights some additional concerns with the statistical analyses. This article suggests some more effective uses of hypnosis and suggestion in improving the learning process in light of prior research, and offers some ideas for future research.

Keywords:

• education
• hypnosis
• learning
• phenomenology
• teaching

Notes

1. It was not stated in either article that control condition participants had their eyes closed during the learning task, nor that the study uses a within-subjects design, but was provided by Nicholas Jacobson in personal communications (January 2014, March 2014). The authors are grateful to him for providing this information.