Deja vu experiences in healthy subjects are unrelated to laboratory tests of recollection and familiarity for word stimuli

Recent neuropsychological and neuroscientific research suggests that people who experience more deja vu display characteristic patterns in normal recognition memory. We conducted a large individual differences study (n = 206) to test these predictions using recollection and familiarity parameters recovered from a standard memory task. Participants reported deja vu frequency and a number of its correlates, and completed a recognition memory task analogous to a Remember-Know procedure. The individual difference measures replicated an established correlation between deja vu frequency and frequency of travel, and recognition performance showed well-established word frequency and accuracy effects. Contrary to predictions, no relationships were found between deja vu frequency and recollection or familiarity memory parameters from the recognition test. We suggest that deja vu in the healthy population reflects a mismatch between errant memory signaling and memory monitoring processes not easily characterized by standard recognition memory task performance.