The subliminal activation of an hypnotic response and the subliminal activation of a posthypnotic response were tested within subject, with the order of testing counter-balanced across subjects. Eight hypnotized subjects of high hypnotizability, eight hypnotized subjects of lesser hypnotizability, eight hypnotic simulators of high hypnotizability, and eight hypnotic simulators of lesser hypnotizability were tested. The results indicate that stimulus-elicited responses can be elicited subliminally during deep hypnosis, because deeply hypnotized subjects are able to recognize critical subliminal stimuli. The results also indicate that posthypnotic responses can only be elicited supraliminally, except when previous hypnotic recognition of subliminal stimuli enables subjects to expect and to abstract similar subliminal stimuli posthypnotically.
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