psych-facts:

1.

Déjà vu

is a feeling that something is happening again, but you can’t recall where and when it happened. People usually recall re-experiencing things from their dreams, even though the dreams have never really happened in actual life until now. 

In my cognitive psychology class (a year back), I briefly recall my professor mentioning something about Déjà vu occurring because of mismatching experiences. It’s when you take some past experiences that you’ve most likely already forgotten and transferring parts of that over to your new experiences.

So for example, when you were 6, your parents take you to a particular playground. You no longer remember the playground since you are so much older now. Then today living in a new place , you happen to cross by a similar looking park. Right away, your brain picks up these past retrieval cues of the park and tries to make sense of it. This confuses you leading you to think that you’ve been here before. 

2. 

Déjà vécu

(pronounced vay-koo) is the feeling that you’ve seen something before and you can predict what’s going to happen next. For example, you know what somebody is going to do or say. Unlike Déjà vu, this refers to your ability to predict future events.
Even though my professor didn’t talk about how Déjà vécu occurs , I think it’s probably the same way Déjà vu does. You bring up past experiences that you’ve forgotten and transferring that over to the seemingly new experience. 

3.

Déjà visité 

is when you visit a totally new place, and you somehow know your way around and feel like you’ve been there before. This is so long ago, but if I recall partially what my professor said, it occurs because of what you learn about places from your own hometown and using those knowledge to help find your way around the new place. So for example, you recognize street signs and symbols, certain buildings you’ve been to (like a mall or a restaurant) and using that to help you find your way around. But the reason you feel like you know way around this new place so magically is because you’re knowledge about places helps you without you being entirely aware of that. 

4.

 Jamais vu

is literally the opposite of  Déjà vu. It’s when you experience something that you’ve already experienced, but you totally feel like it’s an entirely new experience. For example, seeing someone you’ve once knew, but totally not remembering it’s them. And when they talk to you, you behave as if you’re meeting them for the first time. 

How does this happen? My professor didn’t talk about this one, but from my own outside readings, I think it has to do with forgetting. Our brain don’t really encode or store everything we’ve seen or experienced and  our brain is not very accurate at retrieving past information.

In this case, your brain couldn’t retrieve anything from the past about this person. However, if the person changes their clothing or reminds you about themselves, you will be able remember again.

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