Recollection Refreshed: Déjà Vu, False Memories, Witness Testimony

"The term "déjà vu" describes the experience of feeling that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation previously. The experience of déjà vu is usually accompanied by a compelling sense of familiarity, and also a sense of “eeriness,” “strangeness,” or “weirdness.” The “previous” experience is most frequently attributed to a dream, although in some cases there is a firm sense that the experience “genuinely happened” in the past."
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". . . U.S. researchers have identified the part of the brain responsible for this [déjà vu], and they think it may lead to new treatments for memory-related problems. They said neurons in a memory center of the brain called the hippocampus make a mental map of new places and experiences, then store them away for future use. But when two experiences begin to seem very much alike, these mental maps overlap and start to blur. “Deja vu occurs when this ability is challenged,” said Susumu Tonegawa, a professor of biology and neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. It is really just a malfunction in the brain’s ability to sort through new information, something called episodic memory. . . ." From Brain mechanism explains sense of déjà vu.
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"Episodic memory refers to the memory of events, times, places, associated emotions, and other conception-based knowledge in relation to an experience. Semantic and episodic memory together make up the category of declarative memory, which is one of the two major divisions in memory."
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". . . For many years researchers in cognitive neurscience have known that episodic memory does not work like a tape recorder or a computer hard drive. Recollection of events is not a simple replay from a fixed store. Rather, episodic memory (and memory in general) is today seen as a dynamic - even fragile - reconstruction process. As a consequence, errors can happen, and they do. One of these kinds of recall errors are false memories. The mere existence of false memories are serious news for the use of eye witness testimonies, even for victims of violent acts such. If memories cannot be treated as true, but are unstable, influenced by the context in which it is recalled, how can we make use of it at all. . . . "From The making of false memories.
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". . . University of Portsmouth scientists in the UK have developed a powerful new tool that ‘freezes’ the memory of crime scenes in the minds of witnesses. The tool—a self-administered interview applied by witnesses at crime scenes—combats natural memory decay by using the latest research in cognitive psychology techniques. It ‘freezes’ images and details of crime scenes and perpetrators in the minds of witnesses, particularly small and seemingly insignificant details that provide major leads for detectives that turn out to be crucial in solving cases.

Tests at simulated crimes scenes were remarkable with witnesses using the tool recalling forensically relevant information 42 percent more accurate than other witnesses who were simply asked to ‘report as much as you can remember.’ The tests also revealed the witnesses using the self-administered interview (SAI) were 44 percent more correct with details about people - therefore, possible suspects - who had been involved in the event. . . ." From Scientists Develop New Tool To 'Freeze' Crime Scene Memories.