Wednesday, February 16, 2011

déjà vu / deja entendu / jamais vu

déjà vu = seen before

déjà entendu = heard before

jamais vu = never seen - is the phenomenon of experiencing a situation that one recognises but that nonetheless seems very unfamiliar

Déjà Vu, the feeling that you have been in the same place experiencing the same thing, is something that has affected all of us at one point or another, or another. Now researchers have uncovered a possible reason for the occurrence, though the explanation comes as little surprise to those experiencing the phenomenon again and again.

“Many parallels between explanations of déjà vu and theories of human recognition memory exist,” said Anne Cleary of Colorado State University. “Theories of familiarity-based recognition and the laboratory methods used to study it may be especially useful for elucidating the processes underlying déjà vu experiences.”

A report published in Current Directions in Psychological Science states that déjà vu occurs when a current situation resembles a situation that has previously occurred in one’s life. When multiple elements of the two situations overlap, the feeling of familiarity is sparked.

“What we found was that people retain fragments of memory and they then subconsciously reconstruct the occurrence,” continued Cleary. “The mind fills in the gaps and it appears as though an event is reoccurring, but it is an entirely new happening.”

A report published in Current Directions in Psychological Science states that déjà vu occurs when a current situation resembles a situation that has previously occurred in one’s life. When multiple elements of the two situations overlap, the feeling of familiarity is sparked.

jamais vu

"There is another experience worth mentioning; jamais vu. Its the opposite of deja vu. Instead of feeling extra familiar, thing seem totally unfamiliar. In this case there is too little connection between long-term memory and perceptions from the present. When a person is in this state, nothing they experience seems to have anything to do with the past. They might be talking to a person they know well and suddenly they person seems totally unfamiliar. Their sense of knowing the person, and knowing how to relate to them simply vanishes. A room in which they spend a lot of time suddenly becomes totally novel; everything seems new. Details they will have seen a thousand times suddenly become engaging."
--from "Deja Vu in Spiritual and Scientific Views,"

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