Hypnotic susceptibility and performance on a battery of creativity measures

Hypnotizability-related differences in written language

The study analyzed the writing products of subjects with high (highs) and low (lows) hypnotizability. The participants were asked to write short texts in response to highly imaginative scenarios in standard conditions. The texts were processed through computerized and manual methods. The results showed that the highs' texts were more sophisticated due to a higher number of abstract nouns, more intense and imaginative due to a larger number of similes, metaphors, and onomatopoeias, and less detailed due to a higher nouns-to-adjectives ratio. The differences in the use of abstract nouns and highly imageable expressions are discussed in relation to the preeminent left-hemisphere activity of highs during wakefulness and to a possibly different involvement of the precuneus, which is involved in hypnotic phenomena.

Absorption in Imaginings, Sex-Role Orientation, and the Recall of Dreams by Males and Females

Questionnaire measures of dream recall frequency, number of sensory qualities in dreams and emotion in dreams were correlated with several imaginal ability and personality variables in male and female college students. Absorption (i.e., subjects' degree of involvement in such activities as daydreaming, watching a movie, etc.) was the most important predictor of dream variables in females. In males sex-role orientation contrary to stereotype (i.e., femininity) was the only variable significantly related to a dream variable (i.e., frequency of dream recall). The implications of these sex differences for research on dream recall are discussed.

Artifact in the hypnosis-creativity relationship

Subjects who pretested high or low in hypnotic suggestibility took a creativity test either under hypnosis or in a waking state. All subjects made a global estimate of their general degree of creativity. Greater figural-spatial creativity was exhibited in the hypnosis condition than in the waking condition by both high and low suggestibles. Creativity self-reports were not corroborated by actual creative performance.