Article Version of Record

Unconscious Plagiarism in Recall: Attribution to the Self, but not for Self-Relevant Reasons

Author(s) / Creator(s)

Perfect, Timothy J.
Stark, Louisa-Jayne

Abstract / Description

Previous research has shown that if people improve other’s ideas, they subsequently unconsciously plagiarise them at a dramatically higher rate than if they imagine them, or simply hear them again. It has been claimed that this occurs because improvement resembles the process of generation, and that these are confused during retrieval. However, an alternate possibility is tested here: plagiarism may increases because improvement increases personal relevance of the ideas. Two studies were conducted in which there was an initial generation phase, followed by an elaboration phase in which participants imagined the previous ideas, improved them for their own use, or improved them for an older adult’s use. One week later, participants attempted to recall their own ideas, and generated new solutions to the previous problems. In both studies, improvement of doubled the rate of subsequent plagiarism in the recall own task, but this effect was not mediated by whether people improved ideas for their own use, of for use by someone else. Improvement had no effect on plagiarism in the generate-new task. These studies therefore rule out personal relevance, or personal semantics as the source of the improvement effect in unconscious plagiarism.

Keyword(s)

source memory unconscious plagiarism self

Persistent Identifier

Date of first publication

2012-05-31

Journal title

Europe's Journal of Psychology

Volume

8

Issue

2

Page numbers

275–283

Publisher

PsychOpen GOLD

Publication status

publishedVersion

Review status

peerReviewed

Is version of

Citation

Perfect, T. J., & Stark, L.-J. (2012). Unconscious Plagiarism in Recall: Attribution to the Self, but not for Self-Relevant Reasons. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 8(2), 275–283. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v8i2.459
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Perfect, Timothy J.
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Stark, Louisa-Jayne
  • PsychArchives acquisition timestamp
    2018-11-21T10:00:34Z
  • Made available on
    2018-11-21T10:00:34Z
  • Date of first publication
    2012-05-31
  • Abstract / Description
    Previous research has shown that if people improve other’s ideas, they subsequently unconsciously plagiarise them at a dramatically higher rate than if they imagine them, or simply hear them again. It has been claimed that this occurs because improvement resembles the process of generation, and that these are confused during retrieval. However, an alternate possibility is tested here: plagiarism may increases because improvement increases personal relevance of the ideas. Two studies were conducted in which there was an initial generation phase, followed by an elaboration phase in which participants imagined the previous ideas, improved them for their own use, or improved them for an older adult’s use. One week later, participants attempted to recall their own ideas, and generated new solutions to the previous problems. In both studies, improvement of doubled the rate of subsequent plagiarism in the recall own task, but this effect was not mediated by whether people improved ideas for their own use, of for use by someone else. Improvement had no effect on plagiarism in the generate-new task. These studies therefore rule out personal relevance, or personal semantics as the source of the improvement effect in unconscious plagiarism.
    en_US
  • Publication status
    publishedVersion
  • Review status
    peerReviewed
  • Citation
    Perfect, T. J., & Stark, L.-J. (2012). Unconscious Plagiarism in Recall: Attribution to the Self, but not for Self-Relevant Reasons. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 8(2), 275–283. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v8i2.459
  • ISSN
    1841-0413
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/1134
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.1326
  • Language of content
    eng
  • Publisher
    PsychOpen GOLD
  • Is version of
    https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v8i2.459
  • Keyword(s)
    source memory
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    unconscious plagiarism
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    self
    en_US
  • Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)
    150
  • Title
    Unconscious Plagiarism in Recall: Attribution to the Self, but not for Self-Relevant Reasons
    en_US
  • DRO type
    article
  • Issue
    2
  • Journal title
    Europe's Journal of Psychology
  • Page numbers
    275–283
  • Volume
    8
  • Visible tag(s)
    Version of Record