HYPNOSIS and Memory Recall

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF HYPNOSIS ON MEMORY RECALL

For more than 150 years, hypnosis has been employed as a tool to promote witnesses' recollection of the sequence of events that result in the perpetration of various types of crimes (Gravitz, 1995). The application of hypnosis for this purpose is known as forensic hypnosis. On the one hand, hypnosis has produced effective outcomes by eliciting testimony that is not only believable, but also supported through independent evidence. For instance, in the case of Beck v. Norris, five witnesses were able to provide descriptions of the perpetrator of a robbery after undergoing hypnosis. The composite sketch that resulted from these descriptions led to the identification of the defendant, which was further confirmed by a witness who had not been hypnotized or involved in the previous interrogations involving the other witnesses (Webert, 2003). On the other hand, hypnosis can also lead to dire consequences in the legal context when it produces erroneous information, as in the case of State v. Mack. In this case, the victim who was hypnotized recalled detailed information that did not match the facts. Although she recalled that she had been stabbed multiple times, there was only one stab wound (Webert, 2003).

Due to potentially beneficial and adverse effects of hypnotically-elicited testimony, it is little wonder that the use of forensic hypnosis in the law enforcement system is wrought in c

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subjects did not demonstrate a significant difference in the amount of information on recall tests in which they were asked to respond to specific questions that requested for particular information. Even more disturbingly, Steblay and Bothwell (1994) found that hypnotized subjects tended to recall events with less accuracy than their non-hypnotized counterparts. Nonetheless, Steblay and Bothwell (1994) did find that hypnotized subjects demonstrated a slightly higher performance than non-hypnotized subjects when non-leading questions were used and the recall attempt and the event was separated by a time span of at least 24 hours. While this improvement in performance was considered to be "minimal [and] unreliable" by Steblay and Bothwell (1994, p. 648), it affirms the importance of instituting proper procedures in conducting hypnosis for forensic purposes. By enforcing rules such as the time period and the use of non-leading questions, the accuracy of the outcome of forensic hypnosis may be improved significantly. This possibility should be further investigated in future studies. In interpreting the findings of these research studies that suggested the ineffectiveness of hypnosis in enhancing memory recall, theorists have

Category: Psychology - H