Recall Amnesia: In this type of amnesia, a person simply can’t remember what happened while they were under hypnosis. Imagine someone is put into hypnosis and taught a series of nonsense words like “blap,” “zorp,” and “glin.” After the hypnosis session ends, the hypnotist gives them a suggestion to forget these words. When the person returns to their normal state, they won’t be able to remember the nonsense words, even though they learned them during hypnosis. It’s like their mind has a blank space where those memories should be. This happens because the person was specifically told, while in the hypnotic state, to forget those words.
Example: Suppose during hypnosis, a person is told to perform a certain task like clapping their hands. After waking up from hypnosis, they might have no recollection of the task if the hypnotist suggested that they forget it. So, if you asked them what they did while hypnotized, they’d say, “I don’t know,” because they can’t access that memory.
Recognition Amnesia: This type of amnesia involves the person not recognizing information that they encountered during hypnosis. Even if they are presented with something familiar from the hypnosis session, they won’t realize they’ve seen or heard it before. However, research shows that sometimes the problem is not a memory loss but rather a lack of attention during the hypnosis session. If the person wasn’t focused or didn’t encode the information well, it may seem like amnesia, but they may have simply missed it.
Example: Let’s say during hypnosis, a person is shown pictures of a few common objects, like a cup, a chair, and a pen. After hypnosis, if they are shown the same pictures again, they might not recognize them. They won’t feel like they’ve seen the images before, even though they did. But in some cases, this may happen because they weren’t paying full attention to those images during the hypnosis session, not because they truly forgot them.
Source Amnesia: In this case, the person can remember specific information that they learned during hypnosis, but they can’t remember how or where they got it. It’s like the information exists in their mind, but the connection to its origin is lost. So they might recall facts or details but not realize they learned them while hypnotized.
Example: Imagine during hypnosis, a person is told that Sigmund Freud was born in 1856. After hypnosis, if someone asks them, “When was Freud born?” they might say, “1856,” but they won’t remember how they learned that fact. They may even think they learned it from a book or from a friend, rather than during the hypnosis session. This is because the source of the memory (hypnosis) is forgotten, while the fact itself remains.