Title

Familiarity from the configuration of objects in 3-dimensional space and its relation to deja vu: A virtual reality investigation

Authors

Authors

A. M. Cleary; A. S. Brown; B. D. Sawyer; J. S. Nomi; A. C. Ajoku;A. J. Ryals

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

Abbreviated Journal Title

Conscious. Cogn.

Keywords

Familiarity-based recognition; Deja vu; Virtual reality; Scene; recognition; Recognition without cued recall; RECOGNITION MEMORY; IDENTIFICATION; EXPERIENCE; HYPOTHESIS; ILLUSIONS; MODELS; Psychology, Experimental

Abstract

Deja vu is the striking sense that the present situation feels familiar, alongside the realization that it has to be new. According to the Gestalt familiarity hypothesis, deja vu results when the configuration of elements within a scene maps onto a configuration previously seen, but the previous scene fails to come to mind. We examined this using virtual reality (VR) technology. When a new immersive VR scene resembled a previously-viewed scene in its configuration but people failed to recall the previously-viewed scene, familiarity ratings and reports of deja vu were indeed higher than for completely novel scenes. People also exhibited the contrasting sense of newness and of familiarity that is characteristic of deja vu. Familiarity ratings and deja vu reports among scenes recognized as new increased with increasing feature-match of a scene to one stored in memory, suggesting that feature-matching can produce familiarity and deja vu when recall fails. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Journal Title

Consciousness and Cognition

Volume

21

Issue/Number

2

Publication Date

1-1-2012

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

969

Last Page

975

WOS Identifier

WOS:000304336600056

ISSN

1053-8100

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