A preliminary classification of déjà vu, déjà vécu, and involuntary memories.
Déjà vu
Déjà vécu
Involuntary memories
Feelings
Familiarity
•
•
•
Prescience
•
Mental time travel
•
•
Characterisation
“Prior occurrence”
“Prior experience”
“Prior episode”
Content
Emotion
•
•
Visual images
•
Source or context
•
•
Narrative-like coherence
•
A defined past
•
Recall
None
Partial
Complete
Time course
Shorter
Longer
—
Note: we would see that all these experiences should share these same characteristics; they would all be experienced involuntarily and they will all be relatively brief mental phenomena.