Reality testing in hypnosis: Subjective versus objective effects

90 unselected Ss were assigned to a 2 x 3 (Request for Honesty x Suggestibility Instruction) factorial design to test the hypothesis that hypnotic Ss would show pronounced impairment of reality testing by expressing a degree of conviction substantially out of phase with their objective performance. Barber's operational model of hypnosis was adopted to test the prediction on an unusually distinctive auditory comprehension task. The 2 interdependent measures, confidence and accuracy, were highly positively related indicating that, generally speaking, hypnotic Ss performed adaptively, as did task motivated and control Ss. Results for the difficult aspects of the task were most distinctive. Here, degree of confidence about behavior as expressed by Ss who performed well on the suggestibility tests was relatively greater than the confidence expressed by those who performed poorly; further hypnotic Ss were distinctively willing to respond on the least intelligible parts of the task. The inconsistent nature of certain features of hypnotic behavior was discussed in some detail.