The role of brief instructions and suggestibility in the elicitation of auditory and visual hallucinations in normal and psychiatric subjects.

The present study is an investigation of the elicitation of auditory and visual hallucinations by brief instructions and the relationship of the report of hallucinatory-type experiences to standard measures of suggestibility. Two experiments were carried out. The first used normal subjects predisposed or not predisposed to hallucinate, as assessed by the Launay-Slade Hallucination Scale (LSHS-A). The second used hallucinating and nonhallucinating psychiatric patients. The high LSHS-A scorers and the hallucinating psychiatric patients were significantly more likely to hear suggested sounds than were their respective controls. High LSHS-A scorers were also significantly more likely to see suggested objects than were their respective controls, although this finding was not replicated in the psychiatric subjects. No significant differences on measures of suggestibility were found between the groups, although in the psychiatric group Barber Test Suggestion and Subjective Involvement scores correlated positively with LSHS-A scores.