cryptomnesia

n. an implicit memory phenomenon in which people mistakenly believe that a current thought or idea is a product of their own creation when, in fact, they have encountered it previously and then forgotten it. Cryptomnesia can occur in any creative enterprise, as for example when an investigator develops a research idea that he or she believes is original whereas in actuality it can be documented that he or she saw or heard the idea at some earlier point in time. Also called inadvertent plagiarism; unconscious plagiarism.

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Psychology term of the day

May 9th 2024

divided consciousness

Ernest R. Hilgard’s characterization of dissociation as a state in which one stream of mental activity (e.g., perception, memory, planning) proceeds outside of phenomenal awareness and apparently outside of voluntary control. In his neodissociation theory, Hilgard proposed that this state could be best studied through hypnosis. See also coconsciousness; unity of consciousness.