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Attention and Consciousness

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Attention and Consciousness – Unlearning Through Hypnosis
Jill Rudiger
June 8, 2015
PSY 335
University of Phoenix

The study shown in the video Attention and Consciousness – Unlearning Through Hypnosis, focuses on the Stroop Color-Word test which is used in experiments concerning attention (Psychology media suite [Video file], 2008). It simply asks the participant to name the ink color a word is printed in. The catch is that the word “blue” might be printed in red ink. This sets up a cognitive conflict within the brain (“Hypnotic Suggestion Can Reduce Conflict In Human Brain, Weill Cornell Medical College Researchers Report”, 2005). Subjects that were considered “highly suggestible” were asked to take this test in practice sessions first, and then they were hypnotized while researchers watched their brain activity using both event-related potentials (ERP) and functional MRI (fMRI) (“Hypnotic Suggestion Can Reduce Conflict In Human Brain, Weill Cornell Medical College Researchers Report”, 2005). Researchers could see that the brain’s conflict-resolution area was no longer active when subjects were hypnotized as well as areas of the brain involved in recognizing written words (“Hypnotic Suggestion Can Reduce Conflict In Human Brain, Weill Cornell Medical College Researchers Report”, 2005). The study was performed in order for researchers to find evidence that the brain can essentially disregard responses that have long been accepted by experts as automatic or ingrained (“Hypnotic Suggestion Can Reduce Conflict In Human Brain, Weill Cornell Medical College Researchers Report”, 2005). Real world applications for the results of this study include brain research and the placebo effect as well as the power of the spoken word or suggestibility and how it can help people in psychotherapy. In my opinion, the next step in this study should be to include larger

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