Déjà vu experiences in healthy subjects are unrelated to laboratory tests of recollection and familiarity for word stimuli

Akira R O’Connor,Chris J A Moulin

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00881

Abstract

Recent neuropsychological and neuroscientific research suggests that people who experience more déjà vu display characteristic patterns in normal recognition memory. We conducted a large individual differences study (n = 206) to test these predictions using recollection and familiarity parameters recovered from a standard memory task. Participants reported déjà vu frequency and a number of its correlates, and completed a recognition memory task analogous to a Remember-Know procedure. The individual difference measures replicated an established correlation between déjà vu frequency and frequency of travel, and recognition performance showed well-established word frequency and accuracy effects. Contrary to predictions, no relationships were found between déjà vu frequency and recollection or familiarity memory parameters from the recognition test. We suggest that déjà vu in the healthy population reflects a mismatch between errant memory signaling and memory monitoring processes not easily characterized by standard recognition memory task performance.

Highlights

Theories of the déjà vu phenomenon derive from two distinct literatures: individual differences research and cognitive/neuroscientific investigations of familiarity processes
The proportions from 141 participants for whom it was possible to calculate these values were entered into a 2 × 3 repeated measures factorial ANOVA. (It was not possible to calculate these proportions for participants who did not provide a single instance of particular response e.g., “Guess” responses to high frequency words, so these participants were excluded from the analyses reported here.) There was a trend towards a main effect of word frequency, with recognition responses to low frequency words numerically more likely to be given to targets (0.703, SD = 0.331) than recognition responses to high frequency words (0.677, SD = 0.305), F(1,140) = 3.84, p = 0.052, η2p = 0.027
Recent studies have proposed that there is a relationship between recognition memory and déjà vu experiences

Summary

Introduction

Theories of the déjà vu phenomenon derive from two distinct literatures: individual differences research and cognitive/neuroscientific investigations of familiarity processes (see Brown, 2003; O’Connor and Moulin, 2010 for reviews). The experient is unaware of the source of this evoked familiarity, leading to a feeling of déjà vu. This account lends itself to laboratory experimentation with the recognition without identification paradigm, where it is possible to make a stimulus familiar in such a way that the participant is not aware of the source of the familiarity (e.g., Cleary, 2008; Cleary and Reyes, 2009; Cleary et al, 2009, 2012). Participants report feeling more déjà vu for items which share some overlap with a previously experienced stimulus, but only when this familiarity is not pinpointed to a previous experience

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Conclusion