Editing Precognition (section)

===Alternative explanations===
Various known psychological processes have been put forward to explain experiences of apparent precognition. These include:

* [[Coincidence]], where apparent instances of precognition in fact arise from the [[law of truly large numbers]].<ref>[[Richard Wiseman|Wiseman, Richard]]. (2011). ''Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There''. Macmillan. pp. 163-167. {{ISBN|978-0-230-75298-6}}</ref><ref>[[Stuart Sutherland|Sutherland, Stuart]]. (1994). ''Irrationality: The Enemy Within''. pp. 312–313. Penguin Books. {{ISBN|0-14-016726-9}}</ref>
* [[Self-fulfilling prophecy]] and unconscious enactment, where people unconsciously bring about events which they have previously imagined.{{citation needed|date=February 2022|reason=not necessarily unconsciously}}
* [[subliminal stimuli|Unconscious perception]], where people unconsciously infer, from data they have unconsciously learned, that a certain event will probably happen in a certain context. When the event occurs, the former knowledge appears to have been acquired without the aid of recognised channels of information.{{citation needed|date=February 2022|reason=no specific precognitive recollection}}
* [[Retrofitting]], which involves the false interpretation of a past record of a dream or vision, in order to match it to a recent event. Retrofitting provides an explanation for the supposed accuracy of [[Nostradamus]]'s vague predictions. For example, quatrain I:60 states "A ruler born near Italy...He's less a prince than a butcher."  The phrase "near Italy" can be construed as covering a very broad range of geography, while no details are provided by Nostradamus regarding the era when this ruler will live.   Because of this vagueness, and the flexibility of retrofitting, this quatrain has been interpreted by some as referring to [[Napoleon]], but by others as referring to the [[Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor|Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II]], and by others still as a reference to [[Hitler]].<ref name="Nickell SI 2019">{{cite journal |last1=Nickell |first1=Joe |title=Premonition! Foreseeing what cannot be seen. |journal=Skeptical Inquirer |date=2019 |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=17–20}}</ref>
*False memories, such as [[identifying paramnesia]] and [[List of memory biases|memory biases]], where the memory of a non-existent precognitive event is formed after the real event has occurred.<ref name="hines">Hines (2003).</ref> Where subjects in a dream experiment have been asked to write down their dreams in a diary, this can prevent selective memory effects such that the dreams no longer seem accurate about the future.<ref>{{cite book|last=Alcock|first=James E. |title=Parapsychology: Science or Magic?: a psychological perspective| publisher=Pergamon Press|location=Oxford |year=1981|isbn=978-0-08-025773-0}} via Hines (2003).</ref> 
* [[Déjà vu]], where people experience a false feeling that an identical event has occurred previously. Some recent authors have suggested that déjà vu and identifying paramnesia are the same thing.<ref>"[https://www.britannica.com/science/memory-abnormality/Paramnesia-and-confabulation paramnesia and confabulation]", ''Britannica'' (retrieved 14 February 2022).</ref> This view is not universally held, with others instead treating them as distinct phenomena.<ref>Herman N. Sno (1991); "[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/20910707_The_deja_vu_experience_Remembrance_of_things_past The deja vu experience: Remembrance of things past?]", ''American Journal of Psychiatry'' 147(12):1587-95. DOI:10.1176/ajp.147.12.1587</ref>

Psychological explanations have also been proposed for belief in precognition. [[Psychologist]]s have conducted experiments which are claimed to show that people who feel loss of control in their lives will turn to belief in precognition, because it gives them a sense of regaining control.<ref name="Greenaway Louis Hornsey 2013 p=e71327">{{cite journal | last1=Greenaway | first1=Katharine H. | last2=Louis | first2=Winnifred R. | last3=Hornsey | first3=Matthew J. | editor-last=Krueger | editor-first=Frank | title=Loss of Control Increases Belief in Precognition and Belief in Precognition Increases Control | journal=PLOS ONE | publisher=Public Library of Science (PLoS) | volume=8 | issue=8 | date=7 August 2013 | issn=1932-6203 | pmid=23951136 | pmc=3737190 | doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0071327 | page=e71327| bibcode=2013PLoSO...871327G | doi-access=free}}</ref>