My hypnosis research focuses on individual differences in hypnotizability and how they are manifested among very hypnotically responsive persons. Interested students in my laboratory learn both the rudiments of standardized hypnotizability testing and more advanced research protocols. Absorption is a personality trait that taps imaginative and cognitive flexibility at an experiential level. Openness to Experience is a broader trait that encompasses imagination, personal values, and aesthetics. Ongoing collaborative research projects are focusing on how these traits interact with situational, affective and cognitive factors in predicting performance on various psychophysiological, memory, and visual perception tasks.
Theory is put to empirical tests using both experimental and correlational methodologies.
International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 199-201. What this field needs is a good nomological network. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis , 314-323. The scientific status of research on hypnosis.