What is with the "Prank" ? - Pensieve Recall

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 99582

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Phil Boswell" <phil_hp7 at y...>
wrote:
> sunnylove0 at a... wrote:
> > Did Snape figure out that Lupin was a werewolf before the prank?  
> > It's not exactly cold fusion, you know.....
> [snip]

> > OOP chap. 28
> > ... " Give five signs that identify  the werewolf...."  ... said 
> > Lupin seriously as they joined the crowd thronging around the 
> > front doors eager to get out into the sunlit grounds.  " One:  
> > He's sitting on my chair.  Two: He's wearing my  clothes.  Three: 
> > His name's Remus Lupin.."


> Phil comments:
> 
> This ... Harry drew from the Pensieve. Apparently there is some 
> debate as to whether the images thus obtained are *directly* from 
> the memory of the person involved ... or whether the Pensieve 
> "boosts the reception" to allow extra information.
> 
> If you believe the former, then this is direct evidence that Snape
> *did* know.
> 
> Mind you, it would appear that everyone within earshot would have
> known also, ....
> 
> .... So unless Snape was so much closer than anybody else to MWPP at 
> this point that only he overheard ..., the Pensieve must have 
> interjected this into the "recovered memory". ...
> 
> Phil

bboy_mn:

I think we need to give the Pensieve more credit that is obvious at
first glance. When we move through life our minds are recording a
great deal more information than we are consciously aware of. 

We walk down the street and see ants on the sidewalk, but they are so
insignificant to our current mental focus that we block them from our
conscious mind; in other words, we ignore them. But that doesn't mean
the visual images that entered our eyes were not recorded in our
subconscious. 

Another example, we are in a cafe, and the people at the table behind
us are having a conversation, with a few exceptions, we again blot
this conversation from our mind (we ignore it) and concentrate on the
converstation at our own table. But again, just because we ignored the
sound, doesn't mean it wasn't picked up by our ears and recorded by
our subconscious.

This has been demonstrated by placing people under hypnosis in a
police investigations for example. People who have no conscious
knowledge of certain details are able to recall them when the barrier
between their conscious and subconscious memory is lowered. The data
is there even though they have no conscious recall. 

Another illustration is a person with a photographic memory. When they
walk down the street or enter a room, they are not aware that they are
recording detailed information of everything around them. In most
cases they have no immediate recall of the small details. But when
they force a mental image of a place or event to the forefront of
their mind, suddenly amazing detail is available to them. 

So, given all that, I personally don't think the Pensieve has to
'fudge' much on the details. Even if, for example, Snape did not look
over toward the tree where James and his friends were sitting, he has
still seen that tree and the grounds around it many many times, and
his memory would have been able to fill in the voids of the moment
with general memories it had previously stored. 

Expanding this example, let's say Snape was hidden from view by the
bush he was sitting next to. If he faintly heard Sirius or James
voices in the distance, he would have been able to form a mental image
of them from general knowledge of what they looked like and where they
were on the grounds. So, he could have a fairly accurate mental image
without actually looking. Then when he stood up to walk away, his
preconceived mental image would have been spontaniously adjusted when
he glanced in their direction. This is true even if he generally
ignored them as he got up and turned to walk away. 

All these examples are trying to point to the fact that our brain
records tremendous volumes of data as we move through life. Volumes of
data of which a substantial portion never registers with our conscious
mind.

Based on that, I don't have a problem with the Pensieve showing
unusually rich detail when it plays back a memory.

But then... that's just one man's opinion.

bboy_mn