Are involuntary autobiographical memory and déjà vu natural products of memory retrieval?

• Published in: The Behavioral and brain sciences Vol. 46; p. e356
• Main Authors: Barzykowski, Krystian, Moulin, Chris J. A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.01.2023; Cambridge University Press (CUP)
• Subjects: Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive science; Familiarity; Humanities and Social Sciences; Memory; Metacognition; Natural products; Psychology; Target Article; déjà vu; involuntary cognitions; autobiographical memory; threshold model; spontaneous cognition; retrieval processes; involuntary memories
• ISSN: 0140-525X; 1469-1825
• DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X22002035

Involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) and déjà vu are phenomena that occur spontaneously in daily life. IAMs are recollections of the personal past, whereas déjà vu is defined as an experience in which the person feels familiarity at the same time as knowing that the familiarity is false. We present and discuss the idea that both IAMs and déjà vu can be explained as natural phenomena resulting from memory processing and, importantly, are both based on the same memory retrieval processes. Briefly, we hypothesise that both can be described as “involuntary” or spontaneous cognitions, where IAMs deliver content and déjà vu delivers only the feeling of retrieval. We map out the similarities and differences between the two, making a theoretical and neuroscientific account for their integration into models of memory retrieval and how the autobiographical memory literature can explain these quirks of daily life and unusual but meaningful phenomena. We explain the emergence of the déjà vu phenomenon by relating it to well-known mechanisms of autobiographical memory retrieval, concluding that IAMs and déjà vu lie on a continuum.