Familiarity Without Recollection: Why Something Can Feel Familiar Even When You Don't Remember It

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The concept of familiarity without recollection was first introduced by cognitive psychologist George Mandler in 1980, through his observations of how a person can feel familiar with something without being able to remember the context of that experience.

Familiarity without recollection often makes us wonder about the limits of human memory. Imagine meeting someone somewhere and feeling that their face is very familiar, as if you have met them before, even though you have not.

This is what is referred to as familiarity without recollection. In cognitive psychology, familiarity without recollection is an experience in which a person feels familiar with a particular thing (face, object, or situation).

What are familiarity and recollection?  

Familiarity is the feeling of recognizing something without details, while recollection is the ability to remember an event completely, including the time, place, and situation. Both are part of the human memory system, but they work in different ways.

So, why can familiarity arise without recollection?

Because our brains are very efficient. Our brains often take shortcuts so that we can react quickly to our environment. When we see something similar to a past experience, the brain can immediately signal familiarity. Another reason is that our brains can recognize patterns, faces, or objects based on similarities, resulting in feelings of "oh, I think I know this" or "why does this feel familiar?" without being able to explain why.  

This phenomenon is like déjà vu, where a situation feels very familiar even though we know we have never consciously experienced it before.

There is a part of memory that works quickly and vaguely, and another that works slowly but in detail. When the two do not work together, that sense of familiarity arises.

Reference:

Looti, M. (2025). Familiarity. Psychological Scales. https://scales.arabpsychology.com/trm/familiarity/