Jacob has to write an essay for his college writing class and decides to write about a boy who makes a boat from Popsicle sticks and sails it every day.When his teacher reads the essay, she realizes that Jacob got the idea from a popular book.Jacob denies knowing about the story from a book and honestly believes he thought of it himself.He is most likely suffering from
A)a concussion.
B)cryptomnesia.
C)source amnesia.
D)memory decay.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Jacob's situation is an example of cryptomnesia, which is when someone unintentionally plagiarizes something they read or heard before, but believes they came up with the idea themselves. Source amnesia is the inability to remember where information was learned from, but in this case, Jacob denies knowing about the book. A concussion or memory decay do not seem to be relevant factors in this scenario.

Jacob Has to Write an Essay for His College Writing