Illusory feelings of prediction during déjà entendu: An auditory analog to illusory feelings of prediction during déjà vu.

Déjà vu-the strange, inexplicable sensation that a current situation has been experienced before-is often accompanied by an illusory feeling of knowing regarding what is about to happen next. Studies have shown that when déjà vu occurs during virtual tours of scenes, an illusory sense of being able to predict the direction of the next turn frequently accompanies it. The present study examined whether a similar illusory sense of prediction might also accompany the auditory analog of déjà vu known as déjà entendu. Participants heard simple piano pieces, some of which had been experimentally familiarized through previous exposure to some of their features (e.g., isolated rhythm). Upon stopping each piano piece, participants made a familiarity judgment, a déjà entendu judgment, a feeling-of-prediction judgment, a prediction regarding the likely characteristics of the next note, and finally, an identification attempt. In Experiment 1, the prediction judgments were about the contour of the proceeding note (will ascend vs. descend in pitch). In Experiment 2, prediction judgments were about the location of the next note (left vs. right speaker), which was randomly predetermined and therefore unpredictable. Déjà entendu reports were significantly more likely to be accompanied by a feeling of prediction for the proceeding note's contour or location. However, these feelings were illusory, as participants did not show above-chance prediction accuracy in Experiment 1 concerning song contour, and predicting the proceeding note's location was not possible in Experiment 2.