title: Effects of a hypnotically altered state of consciousness on intensification of semantic processing.
abstract: In a study of the linguistic processes involved in hypnosis, 22 volunteer medical students performed semantic and phonologic fluency tasks and then associative priming tests with 2 delay-lengths in waking alert and hypnotic conditions as well. The participants performed better during semantic than phonological fluency tests in alert and also in hypnotic states, and this difference was significantly greater in hypnosis. The increased semantic performance in hypnosis was accompanied by a decrease of the rule-offending errors. Significant semantic priming effects were detected in both states of consciousness in direct and indirect relations as well as in the automatic, intralexical level, and also when the extralexical control processes were activated. Overall, the results appear to show that the hypnotically altered state of consciousness produces significantly better performance in semantic information processing than can be elicited in alert waking conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Szeged, 6725 Szeged, Hungary. szendi@nepsy.szote.u-szeged.hu
authors.forename: István
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Szendi
authors.forename: Zoltán Ambrus
authors.initials: ZA
authors.lastname: Kovács
authors.forename: György
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Szekeres
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Galsi
authors.forename: Krisztina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Boda
authors.forename: István
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Boncz
authors.forename: Zoltán
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Janka
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003244:Consciousness Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006990:Hypnosis; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D012660:Semantics; D013067:Speech Perception