JOURNALISM IN THE AMERICAS

A University of Florida student was fired this week from her internship at The Gazette in Colorado Springs after her editors found similar and identical passages from The New York Times in four of her stories. The practice has become more frequent among journalists including New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson, and ABC TV host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Russ Juskalian writes for Newsweek.

Juskalian speaks with specialists about the possibility that these alleged acts of plagiarism originate in the unconscious—a phenomenon researchers call “cryptomnesia": the act of copying the work of others without realizing it. Henry Roediger, a memory expert at Washington University in St. Louis, says cryptomnesia is caused in part by a flaw in our memory. "It's easier to remember information than it is to remember its source," Juskalian explains.

The writer cites Richard L. Marsh, professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Georgia and a leading cryptomnesia researcher. "When people engage in creative activity, they are so involved in generating or coming up with something new or novel that they fail to protect against what they previously experienced," Marsh says.

However, cryptomnesia happens more often among people who know and trust one another, such as close friends or lovers. To copy an idea or expression of someone we don't know is not as common due "our innate skepticism," Juskalian says.

So can cryptomnesia serve as an unavoidable "perfect excuse" for plagiarism? We may plagiarize without knowing it, but we can't force ourself not to let it happen, Juskalian says. “Taking diligent notes, reminding oneself to remember not just a good idea, but also its source, or simply pondering whether the clever phrase that popped into one's head is original, helps fend off cryptomnesia,” he says.

Even when it happens unconsciously, plagiarism is a crime and those who plagiarize are responsible for the act, Juskalian concludes.