Beth wrote:
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A quick summary: Shell Oil executives were bemoaning their lackluster
sales over the past decade, so looked into what we might call "alternative
psychology selling methods." They finally hit on regression of test
subjects to their first memory of going to a gas station. When inquiring
which brand of gas their (typically) father was buying as they sat in the
back of the family Chevy, they found that this earliest memory seemed to
dictate present choice of gasoline brand. One might question how a three-
and-a-half-year-old would recognize/notice a particular brand, but then
I wasn't asked my opinion. I always liked Shell's safety pamphlets, but
I guess the rest of consumer world wasn't as impressed as I...
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To which Rick Adams responded:
Actually, it's not as hard to accept as it might seem.
The name of the gas, no. But the _symbol_, yes!
---snip---
Are you suggesting that age regression actually does what it claims and takes people
back to when they are a child and allows them to reexperience or remember actual
events like a trip to the gas station when they were 3 or 4 years old? This
explanation doesn't seem plausible. Research indicates that hypnosis is unreliable
for improving memory for even recent events. It is so unreliable that many courts ban
testimony from witnesses who have had their memory "hypnotically refreshed". In
addition, much of the research on age regression suggests that people act as they
believe a child would act but not as a child would actually act. The example that I
remember is writing in a childlike scrawl but with perfect spelling. A more plausible
explanation would be that when told that they are to remember their first trip to the
gas station, they incorporate their current favorite brand into the created memory.
In order for the age regression hypothesis to work we would have to adopt the position
that the memory for most or all events from early childhood is stored but we can't
access most of it unless we are in an hypnotic state. That would require a complete
rethinking of the nature of memory.
Richard Platt
St. Mary's College of Maryland
