Hypnotic susceptibility, baseline attentional functioning, and the Stroop task

According to the theoretical framework relating hypnosis to attention, baseline attentional functioningin highly hypnotizable individuals should be more efficient than in low hypnotizable individuals. However,previous studies did not find differences in Stroop-like tasks in which the measure indicative of the Stroopinterference effect was based on response latencies. This study was designed to determine whether subjectswith different levels of hypnotic susceptibility show differences in baseline attentional functioning. To assessthis hypothesis, high, medium, and low hypnotizable subjects performed a Stroop task designed to evaluateaccuracy performance, before being subjected to hypnotic induction. Results showed that the Stroop interferenceeffect was smaller in high hypnotizable subjects than in low hypnotizable subjects, whereas it wasnot different between high, and medium hypnotizable subjects. This outcome supports the notion that baselineattentional functioning is related to hypnotic susceptibility.