• Question: What is deja vu?

    Asked by anon-237450 to Peter, Mhairi, Madeleine, Catherine, Andrew on 16 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Madeleine Pownall

      Madeleine Pownall answered on 16 Mar 2020:

      It comes from the French meaning “already seen” and is the eery feeling that you have already experienced something before. Some psychologists who study memory have suggested that we experience deja vu due to the way that our memories are ‘encoded’ (stored) and ‘retrieved’ (remembered).

      It can be a pretty spooky feeling!

    • Photo: Mhairi Bowe

      Mhairi Bowe answered on 18 Mar 2020:

      There have been some interesting studies on de ja vu. Many psychologists believe it is a consequence of the cognitive processing of memories such that we experience something similar and this reaches a threshold in our processing system which triggers an very real sensation of recognition which feels like recall.

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