1985 — 1999 |
Kihlstrom, John F |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. R37Activity Code Description: To provide long-term grant support to investigators whose research competence and productivity are distinctly superior and who are highly likely to continue to perform in an outstanding manner. Investigators may not apply for a MERIT award. Program staff and/or members of the cognizant National Advisory Council/Board will identify candidates for the MERIT award during the course of review of competing research grant applications prepared and submitted in accordance with regular PHS requirements. |
Personality and Cognition in Hypnotic Phenomena @ University of Wisconsin Madison
The domain of hypnosis includes a variety of alterations in perception and memory, experienced in a subjectively compelling fashion in accordance with the suggestions of the hypnotist. Support is requested for a program of research emphasizing the effects of hypnosis on learning and memory, individual differences in hypnotic response, and their implications for cognitive processes relevant to normal personality, psycho-pathology, and psychotherapy. Studies proposed include: (a) disorganized recall and recognition memory during posthypnotic amnesia, and the effects of memories covered by the amnesia suggestion on ongoing cognition and action; (b) the effect of hypnosis on the recovery of forgotten memories, if any, the optimal means of eliciting such memories, and the mechanisms responsible for the effect; (c) the effect of suggestions for agnosia on the organization of semantic (as opposed to episodic) knowledge; (d) the effect of hypnotically suggested emotional states and other distinctive mental contexts on the acquisition, retention, and retrieval of memory; (e) the role of "concrete" thinking in subjects' response to hypnotic suggestions; (f) the influence of hypnotic suggestions on the acquisition of new information, (g) contextual and experiential determinants of judgments of hypnotic depth, whether these are made by the subjects themselves or by outside observers; (h) individual differences in cognitive skills and other features of personality, measured in the normal waking state, that may be related to hypnotic susceptibility. Occasional studies of learning and memory in the normal waking state, especially as they are related to personality, will provide additional background for the hypnosis research. The results of this research, viewed from the perspective of both general memory theory and a "neodissociation" view of divided consciousness, will help clarify the nature of hypnosis and of unconscious mental processes relevant to personality and psychotherapy. This increased understanding of both hypnosis and hypnotizable individuals will, in turn, indicate directions for more appropriate and effective use of hypnosis in the evaluation and treatment of clinical problems.
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1989 — 1990 |
Kihlstrom, John F |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Mood and Memory
This research project is concerned with the impact of emotional state on cognitive processes in normal subjects. Experiment 1 compares the properties of two common mood-induction techniques. Using the techniques developed in this experiment, the remaining studies will use conventional verbal-learning procedures and autobiographical memory designs to explore the phenomena of mood- dependent memory (MDM) and mood-congruent memory (MCM) and resource allOcation effects. Experiments 2A&B attempt to extent a seminal demonstration of MDM using a two-list interference paradigm, varying type of stimulus item and encoding. Experiments 3A&B explore both MDM and MCM in a single-list design, first with degraded encoding conditions and next with optimal encoding conditions. Experiments 4A&B examine MDM in implicit as opposed to explicit memory. Experiments 5A&B attempt to explore MCM in autobiographical recollection as opposed to verbal learning. An important feature of the present research is the assessment of individual di-ferences in personality and cognitive style as potential mediators of mood-memory interactions. Of particular interest are dimensions relating to absorption, vividness of mental imagery, self-monitoring and self-consciousness, attributional style, and repressive defense, as well as dispositional variations in chronic mood state. As a whole, these experiments should contribute to clarifying the various effects of mood on memory, and in general to understanding the relations between the cognitive and emotional systems.
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