Two experiments investigated the role of instructions to pretend forgetting on disorganized recall. Exp. 1 indicated that the wording of instructions to pretend influenced both the tendency of subjects to show disorganization and their tendency to guess the disorganization hypothesis. Importantly, only instructions to pretend that led to guessing the hypothesis also led to disorganization. Exp. 2 indicated that subjects exhibited significant disorganization even when they were instructed both to pretend to forget and to recall a specific number of words. Implications of these findings for research on hypnotic amnesia are discussed.
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