Effect of verbal suggestions on solving the Pigpen problem

Abstract

There are many physiological and psychological factors, which are thought to affect performance on various cognitive tasks. Even phrasing of a task can change results dramatically. There are studies showing that verbal suggestions can increase performance on tasks such as Stroop test. Some findings show that suggestions can have automating and de-automating effect on cognitive processes.
However, there is insufficient information about the influence of hypnotic and non-hypnotic suggestions on higher-order processing such as problem solving. Several authors link hypnosis phenomenon with top-down cognitive control, proposing for consideration of insight problem solving in this context.
This paper aims to analyze current literature on the association between hypnosis and suggestions on the one hand and cognitive control and creative problem solving on the other. The effect of hypnotic suggestions on insight problem solving is also investigated by looking at cognitive control.