Teachers are constantly seeking to outfox would-be plagiarists. But there's a wrinkle: Plagiarism isn't always deliberate. Indeed, research has shown that inadvertent plagiarism--or cryptomnesia, as psychologists have termed the phenomenon--is a rather common memory glitch that pervades everyday cognitive functioning.he mechanisms that underlie cryptomnesia also have important implications for creativity, Marsh believes. Recently, he, Landau, Hicks and psychologist Thomas B. Ward, PhD, of Texas A&M University, have examined how unconscious learning affects the creative process.