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Concept information

phenomenon > memory phenomenon > butcher-in-the-bus phenomenon

Preferred term

butcher-in-the-bus phenomenon  

Definition

  • Feeling that a person is familiar, especially when recognized in an atypical context, without recall of particular information about that person.

Broader concept

Related concepts

Entry terms

  • BOB experience
  • butcher-on-the-bus phenomenon

Belongs to group

Bibliographic citation(s)

  • • Brown, A. (2020). The butcher on the bus experience. In A. M. Cleary & B. L. Schwartz (Eds.), Memory Quirks : The study of odd phenomena in memory (p. 224‑247). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429264498-17

    [Study type: literature review / Access: closed]
  • • MacLeod, C. M. (2020). The butcher on the bus : A note on familiarity without recollection. History of Psychology, 23(4), 383‑387. https://doi.org/10.1037/hop0000178

    [Study type: historical study / Access: closed]
  • • Mandler, G. (1980). Recognizing : The judgment of previous occurrence. Psychological Review, 87(3), 252‑271. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.87.3.252

    [Study type: empirical study / Access: closed]

Creator

  • Frank Arnould

Editorial note

  • The phenomenon takes its name from the example given by Mandler (1980, pp. 252-253): “Consider seeing a man on a bus whom you are sure that you have seen before; you “know” him in that sense. Such a recognition is usually followed by a search process asking, in effect, where could I know him from? Who is he? The search process generates likely contexts (Do I know him from work; is he a movie star, a TV commentator, the milkman?). Eventually the search may end with the insight, that’s the butcher from the supermarket!“

In other languages

URI

http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/P66-RDS0Z9TM-H

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