Akira O'ConnorProfessor, School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews

Publications

Books, journal articles, book chapters and other writing, newest first, followed by talks, interviews and media. Where I can share it, a PDF is linked alongside the DOI: the typeset version where possible, otherwise my author version.

Awards

Books 2

  1. O’Connor AR & Robbins EE (2024). Colonised Minds: Narratives that Shape Psychology. London: Sage.

    Publisher

  2. O’Connor AR & Moulin CJA (Eds) (2023). Déjà vu and Other Dissociative States in Memory. London: Routledge.

    Publisher

Journal articles 38

2026

  1. Lawrence DW, Doss MK & O’Connor AR (2026). Characterizing psychedelic-evoked familiarity: A comparative study with autobiographical and déjà vu experiences. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. Advance online publication.

    PDFDOI

  2. De Filippi F, Penacchio O, O’Connor AR & Harris JM (2026). Natural warning signals unexpectedly shape human metamemory ratings but not image recognition success. Scientific Reports, 16, 10435.

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2023

  1. Aitken CBA, Jentzsch I & O’Connor AR (2023). Towards a conflict account of déjà vu: The role of memory errors and memory expectation conflict in the experience of déjà vu. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 155, 105467.

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  2. Lamers James RG & O’Connor AR (2023). Impact of focus of attention on aiming performance in the first-person shooter videogame Aim Lab. PLOS ONE, 18(7), e0288937.

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  3. Harris CB & O’Connor AR (2023). On the same wavelength: The impact of other-generated cues on the reported retrieval processes and qualities of autobiographical memories. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 12(1), 82–93.

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2022

  1. Persson BM, Ambrozova V, Duncan S, Wood ER, O’Connor AR & Ainge JA (2022). Lateral entorhinal cortex lesions impair odor-context associative memory in male rats. Journal of Neuroscience Research, 100(4), 1030–1046.

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2021

  1. Ameen-Ali KE, Sivakumaran M, Eacott MJ, O’Connor AR, Ainge JA & Easton A (2021). Perirhinal cortex and the recognition of relative familiarity. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 182, 107439.

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  2. Wells CE, O’Connor AR & Moulin CJA (2021). Déjà vu experiences in anxiety. Memory, 29(7), 895–903.

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  3. Urquhart JA, Sivakumaran MH, Macfarlane J & O’Connor AR (2021). fMRI evidence supporting the role of memory conflict in the déjà vu experience. Memory, 29(7), 921–932.

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  4. Moulin CJA, Bell N, Turunen M, Baharin A & O’Connor AR (2021). The the the the induction of jamais vu in the laboratory: Word alienation and semantic satiation. Memory, 29(7), 933–942.

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2020

  1. Kuruvilla M, O’Connor AR & Ainge JA (2020). Distance- rather than location-based temporal judgements are more accurate during episodic recall in a real world task. Memory, 28(6), 783–794.

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  2. Sweetman R, Hadfield A & O’Connor AR (2020). Material culture, museums and memory: Experiments in visitor recall and memory. Visitor Studies, 23(1), 18–45.

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2018

  1. Sivakumaran MH, Mackenzie AK, Callan IR, Ainge JA & O’Connor AR (2018). The discrimination ratio derived from novel object recognition tasks as a measure of recognition memory sensitivity, not bias. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 11579.

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  2. Liverakos K, McIntosh K, Moulin CJA & O’Connor AR (2018). How accurate are runners’ prospective predictions of their race times? PLOS ONE, 13(8), e0200744.

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2017

  1. Jersakova R, Allen RJ, Booth J, Souchay C & O’Connor AR (2017). Understanding metacognitive confidence: Insights from judgment-of-learning justifications. Journal of Memory and Language, 97, 187–207.

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  2. Kempnich M, Urquhart JA, O’Connor AR & Moulin CJA (2017). Evidence for the contribution of a threshold retrieval process to semantic memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70(10), 2026–2047.

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  3. Rathbone CJ, O’Connor AR & Moulin CJA (2017). The tracks of my years: Personal significance contributes to the reminiscence bump. Memory & Cognition, 45, 137–150.

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2016

  1. Mill RD, O’Connor AR & Dobbins IG (2016). Pupil dilation during recognition memory: Isolating unexpected recognition from judgment uncertainty. Cognition, 154, 81–94.

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  2. Persson BM, Ainge JA & O’Connor AR (2016). Disambiguating past events: Accurate source memory for time and context depends on different retrieval processes. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 132, 40–48.

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  3. Jersakova R, Moulin CJA & O’Connor AR (2016). Investigating the role of assessment method on reports of déjà vu and tip-of-the-tongue states during standard recognition tests. PLOS ONE, 11(4), e0154334.

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  4. Noreen S, O’Connor AR & MacLeod MD (2016). Neural correlates of direct and indirect suppression of autobiographical memories. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 379.

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2015

  1. Mill RD, Cavin I & O’Connor AR (2015). Differentiating the functional contributions of resting connectivity networks to memory decision-making: fMRI support for multi-stage control processes. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 27, 1617–1632.

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  2. Harris CB, O’Connor AR & Sutton J (2015). Cue generation or memory construction in direct and generative autobiographical memory. Consciousness and Cognition, 33, 204–216.

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2014

  1. Urquhart JA & O’Connor AR (2014). The awareness of novelty for strangely familiar words: A laboratory analogue of the déjà vu experience. PeerJ, 2, e666.

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  2. Mill RD & O’Connor AR (2014). Question format shifts bias away from the emphasised response in tests of recognition memory. Consciousness and Cognition, 30, 91–104.

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2013

  1. O’Connor AR & Moulin CJA (2013). Déjà vu experiences in healthy subjects are unrelated to laboratory tests of recollection and familiarity for word stimuli. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 881.

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  2. Gradin VB, Waiter G, O’Connor AR, Romaniuk L, Stickle C, Matthews K, Hall J & Steele JD (2013). Salience network–midbrain dysconnectivity and blunted reward signals in schizophrenia. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 211(2), 104–111.

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2012

  1. Jaeger A, Selmeczy D, O’Connor AR, Diaz M & Dobbins IG (2012). Prefrontal cortex contributions to controlled memory judgment: fMRI evidence from adolescents and young adults. Neuropsychologia, 50, 3745–3756.

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  2. Han S, O’Connor AR, Eslick A & Dobbins IG (2012). The role of left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex during episodic decisions: Semantic elaboration or resolution of episodic interference? Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 24(1), 223–234.

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2011

  1. O’Connor AR, Guhl EN, Cox JC & Dobbins IG (2011). Some memories are odder than others: Judgments of episodic oddity violate known decision rules. Journal of Memory and Language, 64(4), 299–315.

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2010

  1. O’Connor AR, Han S & Dobbins IG (2010). The inferior parietal lobule and recognition memory: Expectancy violation or successful retrieval? Journal of Neuroscience, 30(8), 2924–2934.

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  2. O’Connor AR & Moulin CJA (2010). Recognition without identification, erroneous familiarity, and déjà vu. Current Psychiatry Reports, 12(3), 165–173.

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  3. O’Connor AR, Lever C & Moulin CJA (2010). Novel insights into false recollection: A model of déjà vécu. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 15, 118–144.

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2008

  1. O’Connor AR & Moulin CJA (2008). The persistence of erroneous familiarity in an epileptic male: Challenging perceptual theories of déjà vu activation. Brain and Cognition, 68, 144–147.

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  2. Barnier AJ, Cox RE, O’Connor AR, Coltheart M, Langdon R, Breen N & Turner M (2008). Developing hypnotic analogues of clinical delusions: Mirrored-self misidentification. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 13, 406–430.

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  3. O’Connor AR, Barnier AJ & Cox RE (2008). Déjà vu in the laboratory: A behavioral and experiential comparison of posthypnotic amnesia and posthypnotic familiarity. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 56(4), 425–450.

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2006

  1. O’Connor AR & Moulin CJA (2006). Normal patterns of déjà experience in a healthy, blind male: Challenging optical pathway delay theory. Brain and Cognition, 62(3), 246–249.

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  2. Moulin CJA, Turunen M, Salter AJA, O’Connor AR, Conway MA & Jones RW (2006). Recollective confabulation: Persistent déjà vécu in dementia. Helix Review, 2, 10–15.

Book chapters 5

  1. O’Connor AR & Moulin CJA (2025). Déjà vu. In LM Bietti & M Pogacar (Eds), The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Memory Studies. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

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  2. Aitken CBA & O’Connor AR (2020). Converging on an understanding of the déjà vu experience. In AM Cleary & BL Schwartz (Eds), Memory Quirks: The Study of Odd Phenomena in Memory. New York: Routledge.

    PDF author versionDOI

  3. Jersakova R, O’Connor AR & Moulin CJA (2015). What’s new in déjà vu? In S Haque & E Sheppard (Eds), Culture and Cognition: A Collection of Critical Essays (pp. 137–150). Peter Lang.

    PDFRepository

  4. Illman NA, Moulin CJA, O’Connor AR & Chauvel P (2012). Déjà experiences in epilepsy: Contributions from memory research. In A Zeman, N Kapur & M Jones-Gotman (Eds), Epilepsy and Memory (pp. 117–138). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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  5. O’Connor AR, Moulin CJA & Cohen G (2008). Memory and consciousness. In G Cohen & MA Conway (Eds), Memory in the Real World (3rd ed., pp. 327–356). Hove: Psychology Press.

    PDF author versionRepository

Other writing 8

  1. Robbins EE & O’Connor AR (2024). The echoes of psychology’s past. The Psychologist.

    Read

  2. Moulin CJA & O’Connor AR (2023). Jamais vu: The science behind the eerie opposite of déjà vu. The Conversation.

    ReadIn FrenchIn Spanish

  3. O’Connor AR, Wells CE & Moulin CJA (2021). Déjà vu and other dissociative states in memory [Editorial]. Memory, 29(7), 835–842.

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  4. Urquhart JA & O’Connor AR (2018). Constructing and model-fitting receiver operator characteristics using continuous data. PsyArXiv.

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  5. Moulin CJA, O’Connor AR & Rathbone CJ (2016). The things you remember best happened when you were between 15 and 25 – here’s why. The Conversation.

    ReadIn French

  6. Teale JC & O’Connor AR (2015). What is déjà vu? Frontiers for Young Minds, 3, 1.

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  7. O’Connor AR (2012). Review of Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age, by V Mayer-Schönberger. Memory Studies, 5(4), 504–506.

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  8. O’Connor AR (2008). Politics and peer review. The Psychologist, 21(9), 752.

    PDF

Selected talks, interviews & media 7

  1. Interview

    KAN Conversations: Professor Akira O'Connor

    Kaleidoscope Alumni Network, University of St Andrews · June 2026
    Read interview
  2. Public talk

    Colonised Minds: the narratives that shape psychology (with Erin Robbins)

    Lighthouse Bookshop, Edinburgh · 2024
    Watch video
  3. Podcast

    The extraordinary psychology of déjà vu

    Instant Genius, BBC Science Focus · February 2023
    Listen to podcast
  4. Interview

    Talking Headlines: how déjà vu research came to dominate the media

    Research the Headlines · August 2016
    Read interview
  5. Radio

    Interviews on déjà vu for BBC World Service Newshour and Absolute Radio

    BBC World Service; Absolute Radio · August 2016
    Listen in blog archive
  6. Coverage

    Mystery of déjà vu explained – it's how we check our memories

    New Scientist · August 2016
    Read article
  7. Interview

    Déjà vu experience: author interview

    PeerJ blog · November 2014
    Read interview