A review of cryptomnesia research

Abstract

People may mistakenly regard a previously known idea as their own: this phenomenon is called “cryptomnesia.” This paper reviews cryptomnesia-related experimental studies that originated with the pioneering work of Brown and Murphy (1989). Previous research has specified the factors that increase or decrease the incidence of cryptomnesia. These studies found that the cognitive processes underlying the phenomenon of cryptomnesia are complicated and involve various factors such as the evaluation of memory trace strength, the nature of memory representation, the credibility of the originator, the experimenter's instructions, and feelings. These findings also provide some suggestions for exploring how to reduce the incidence of cryptomnesia and performing further research.