The objective precision of operant conditioning methodology validates the power of hypnosis to induce alterations in time perception. Personal tempo was systematically modified by instructions to trained hypnotic subjects, with significant behavioral effects observed on a variety of response rate measures.

ABSTRACTIn an exploratory study on the specificity of autonomic control, subjects attempted to simultaneously change the skin temperature of their two hands in opposite directions. Subjects who were trained in hypnosis were successful in achieving this bilateral difference, while waking control subjects were not. These findings demonstrate the powerful influence that cognitive processes can exert on the autonomic nervous system and also suggest the possibility of more effective therapeutic control of psychosomatic problems.

Temporal perspective was experimentally manipulated by verbal instructions to expand the present while minimizing the significance of past and future. The reactions of trained hypnotic subjects to this induction were compared with hynotic simulators and nonsimulating controls. In a fourth group, time sense was made salient but no suggestion given to alter it. Across a variety of tasks, self‐report measures, and behavioral observations, this modification of the boundaries between past, present, and future resulted in profound consequences among the hypnotic subjects.Changes in affect, language, thought processes, sensory awareness, and susceptibility to social‐emotional contagion, accompanied an expanded present orientation. Nonreactive measures distinguished simulators from hypnotic subjects who apparently were better able than control subjects to incorporate the induced time distortion and perceive it as a viable alternative to their traditional time perspective. Some implications of time as a pervasive, non‐obvious, independent variable in the social control of cognition and behavior are outlined.