Research Development Paper

Samantha Craig

PSY/335

Dr. Henry

3/16/2015

The video of "Attention and Consciousness, Unlearning through Hypnosis" highlights the findings of researcher Amir Raz in hypnotic suggestion and how this could end some people's behaviors that they did to do automatically. An example of this type of behavior could be nail biting or even smoking cigarettes. In this research Raz gathered eight people who were susceptible to hypnosis and eight people who were not and studied them as they took what he named the Stroop Color-Word test. This test had various words such as the color red but written the color blue pop in front of them. What they were to do was to name the color of the ink not the one that was spelled out, while he monitored the brain activities. Amir Raz "hoped to erase confusion in a brain region that deals with conflict, called the anterior cingulate cortex, or ACC, by using this hypnotic suggestion." (Films Media Group, 2008) He did come to the conclusion that those who were susceptible to hypnosis did better on the test than those who were not, and that the anterior cingulate cortex reduced in lighting up.

There are a many different ways the study can apply to the real world. It can be used to induce and monitor stress. According to KARTHIKEYAN, MURUGAPPAN, and YAACOB (2014) "A total of 10 female subjects (aged 20-25 years) participated in this study. A time and frequency domain analysis of the HRV and ECG signals was done to extract the stress-related features." This was done to watch for spikes in the ECG signals and helped develop a physiological stressed based system. It can also be used to understand autism better. It is said that with this disorder there is poor reading skills. During a test of 13 males and 11 females that all have been diagnosed with Autism where given the Stroop Test and came to the conclusion that "Stroop task is not a valid measure of inhibitory function for individuals with autism."(Adams and Jarrold, 2009)

Then there is the Research question and how it can be tested. This test with Amir Raz was already used on 16 people that have been screen half of them susceptible to hypnosis the others not. The next question that could be asked might be is there a difference in gender to who is more susceptible to hypnosis that might be concluded to by this test. In order to find this out there would need to be clear notification on how many of those 16 participants where men and women. Once this information has been gathered and it can be determined if gender plays a role in how well the Stroop Color-Word test does. The hypothesis would clearly be is there a difference in the mental capacity of men and women to who can pass the Stroop test. Then it is important to group your participants and to screen them to make sure they have not done this test before. Once that is done it is time for the next step would be the observation step, this would happen while watching the ACC of both genders to see if it lights up or not more frequently for the opposite gender. Once all the information and data has clearly been looked over than a clear finding should be able to be diagnosed.

In conclusion the Raz Study was finding out if a person who is easier to hypnotize would have a lower or higher antierer cingulate cortex compared to those who are not. This study opened many doors to others who have used the same Stroop Color-Word test to find out stress induce stages and to help understand autism and how it affects the brain and ability to read. There could be other test based off of Amir Raz original test such as the one listed above that could possibly determine if men or women show a higher level in ACC or not. The future of research can be wide and open to ample opportunities.

References

KARTHIKEYAN, P., MURUGAPPAN, M., & YAACOB, S. (2014, March). Analysis of Stroop Color Word Test-Based Human Stress Detection using Electrocardiography and Heart Rate Variability Signals. Arabian Journal For Science & Engineering (Springer Science & Business Media B.V. , 39(3), 1835-1847.

Films Media Group. (2008). Attention and consciousness - Unlearning through hypnosis (01:34) from Psychology Media Suite. Retrieved from

Adams, N. C., & Jarrold, C. (2009, August). Inhibition and the Validity of the Stroop Task for Children with Autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39(8), 1112-1121.