Cryptoamnesia
4 August 2010 • out of context
“Cryptoamnesia is characterized by having a thought you’ve had before without realizing that you have had the thought before. The easiest way to observe cryptoamnesia is in episodes of plagiarism where the plagiarist is completely unaware that the text existed previously. (…) These anecdotes elucidate a common underlying mechanism of memory. Every time we recall a memory it is immersed in a narrative context. Usually the context of the memory is correctly recalled, however, in certain circumstances, it can be forgotten. Without a narrative context for an idea or memory, we tend to make one up. Therefore we may consider a memory remembered out of context a novel idea.”