Lateral asymmetry in visual detection under hypnosis.
It has been suggested that the hypnotic state results in a greater relative activation or priming of the right cerebral hemisphere than of the left hemisphere. The experiment reported here employed hypnosis to produce such a priming effect in a visual-detection task. Subjects were required to detect the presence or absence of a gap in outline squares presented either to the left visual field or right visual field, with response time as the primary dependent measure. Those subjects who were hypnotized produced a 50-msec. response time difference favoring squares presented to the left visual field whereas control subjects and simulator-control subjects showed no lateral asymmetries. The result is classified as a material-nonspecific priming effect and discussed with regard to the nature of processing resources.
Department of Psychology, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA 17604.
E J
EJ
Hass
C W
CW
Holden
D001288:Attention; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D005556:Form Perception; D006801:Humans; D006990:Hypnosis; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time