Freaky Friday Files: Types of Déjà vu and Other Psychological Phenomena

Hi friends! For this week's edition of Freaky Friday Files, I thought we could take a look at some different types of déjà vu and other psychological phenomena!! Enjoy :D

PIN IT

PIN IT

Types of Déjà vu

• Déjà vu - (translates to "already seen" from French). Déjà vu "is the phenomenon of feeling like one has lived through the present situation in the past." It can be described as a type of "illusion of memory" where even if we have a strong sense of recollection of being somewhere or having something happen, the previous experience is either impossible or uncertain. The term was first coined by French philosopher Émile Boirac in 1876. Some people like to explain Déjà vu as temporary memory glitches, but Déjà vu can also be associated with medical disorders such as temporal lobe epilepsy (unprovoked seizures), migraines with aura, and dissociative identity disorder.

• Déjà vécu - (translates to "already experienced/lived"). Déjà vécu "is an intense, but false, feeling of having already lived through the present situation." It is considered a type of Déjà vu with the main difference being that Déjà vécu has behavioural consequences, as the person experiencing it cannot tell that the "feeling" of familiarity is not real, and therefore, this could lead to one withdrawing from their current activities.

• Déjà senti - (translates to "already felt"). Déjà senti is a type of memory phenomenon where a person experiences an overwhelming sensation that they have had that exact feeling or emotional state before now.

• Déjà Visité - (translates to "already visited"). Déjà Visité is when a person experiences the uncanny phenomenon of arriving in an unfamiliar location and instantly knowing its exact geographic layout.

• Déjà entendu - (translates to "already heard"). Déjà entendu is "the experience of feeling sure about having already heard something, even though the exact details are uncertain or were perhaps imagined".

Other Psychological Phenomena

• Jamais vu - (translates to "never seen"). Jamais vu is often described as the complete opposite of déjà vu. Wikipedia says Jamais vu "is any familiar situation which is not recognized by the observer." When a person experiences this, they feel a sense of eeriness when looking at something/someone for the first time - the whole thing feels entirely new. It's said to happen when your brain has a temporary cognitive glitch, as most of the time it happens when you have seen that thing/person before. It's like all logic goes out the window for a split second.

• Presque vu - (translates to "almost seen"). Presque vu is the "tip-of-the-tongue" effect. It's a feeling where you feel as if you're on the brink of an epiphany/insight, but you don't actually achieve the epiphany/insight.

• Déjà rêvé - (translates to "already dreamed"). Déjà rêvé is the feeling of already having dreamed something while it's happening (even though you may or may not have experienced it).

• The Frequency Illusion - (sometimes called the Red Car Theory OR Baader–Meinhof phenomenon) is "a cognitive bias in which a person notices a specific concept, word, or product more frequently after recently becoming aware of it".

• The Cocktail Party Effect - This is "a phenomenon wherein the brain focuses on a person's attention or a particular stimulus, usually auditory." Basically, in a room full of noise, your brain can filter out all the information so you can hear your name.

• The Pratfall Effect - In social psychology, this effect refers to "the tendency for a person's likeability to change after making a mistake depending on perceived competence: highly competent individuals tend to become more likeable, while average individuals may become less likeable for the same error."

• Illusory Truth Effect - This is the tendency for one to believe false information as correct after repeated exposure (i.e., if information feels familiar, one is more likely to take it as fact). It's a great reminder to fact-check as much as we can, especially stuff we see on social media.

• Charles Bonnet Syndrome - This is something that happens to people who lose some of their vision or all of their vision and causes the person to have visual hallucinations (i.e., seeing things that aren't really there). If a low vision person can't make out a full scene, the brain can place "fake" information in a line of sight to finish the scene - and that fake information is stuff they've seen before.

• Alice in Wonderland Syndrome - (also known as Todd's Syndrome). Alice in Wonderland Syndrome is a neurological condition that causes perception distortion. A person who has this may see objects as smaller than they are or larger than they are.

  
  

Thank you for reading! Ash xx

References:

• Aronson, E., Willerman, B., & Floyd, J. (1966). The effect of a pratfall on increasing interpersonal attractiveness. Psychonomic Science, 4(6), 227-228.

• Brown, A. S. (2003). A review of the déjà vu experience. Psychological bulletin, 129(3), 394.

• Kusumi, T. (2006). Human metacognition and the déjà vu phenomenon. Diversity in cognition: Evolution, development, domestication, and pathology, 302-314.

• McNeely-White, K. L., & Cleary, A. M. (2025). Illusory feelings of prediction during déjà entendu: An auditory analog to illusory feelings of prediction during déjà vu. Memory & Cognition, 53(8), 2375-2393.

• https://health.clevelandclinic.org/deja-vu-what-it-is-and-when-it-may-be-cause-for-concern

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9j%C3%A0_vu

• https://medium.com/@2freet/d%C3%A9j%C3%A0-senti-ad3d4a026898

• https://psyche.co/ideas/deja-vu-is-just-one-of-many-uncanny-kinds-of-deja-experiences

SAVE TO PINTEREST

SAVE TO PINTEREST