Posthypnotic amnesia for autobiographical episodes: A laboratory model of functional amnesia?

Extreme variation in the accessibility of autobiographical memory is a major characteristic of functional amnesia. On the basis of its ability, to temporarily disrupt the retrieval of memory material, posthypnotic amnesia (PHA) has been proposed as a laboratory analogue of such amnesia. However, most PHA research has,focused on relatively simple, nonpersonal information learned during hypnosis, This experiment extended PHA to autobiographical memory, by examining high- and low-hypnotizable subjects' explicit and implicit memory of two autobiographical episodes, one of which was targeted by a PHA suggestion, The effects of PHA were consistent with the major features of,functional amnesia: PHA disrupted retrieval of autobiographical information, produced a dissociation between implicit and explicit memory. and was reversible, The nature of PHA's effect on autobiographical memory and the potential utility of a PHA paradigm for investigating functional amnesia are discussed.