Leveling and sharpening


Leveling and sharpening are two functions that are automatic and exist within memory. Sharpening is usually the way people remember small details in the retelling of stories they have experienced or are retelling those stories. Leveling is when people keep out parts of stories and try to tone those stories down so that some parts are excluded. Therefore, it makes it easier to fill in the memory gaps that exist.

Explanation

According to a study conducted by psychologists in 1945 leveling and sharpening is involved in the retelling of stories. A person retelling the story about Noah's Ark might do it in the following way:
This retelling of the story of Noah's ark includes sharpening. Vivid details are retroactively added in the storytelling. Noah's interaction with the rest of the mankind and its explicit portrayal as wicked is not included in the Bible.
This version also includes leveling. Events in the original story are excluded and altered. According to the Bible, Noah sent out birds from his boat to try to discover if there was land. First he sent a raven, which kept returning home to the ark and then again flying out into the sea. When the raven no longer returned, he sent a dove which returned with an olive leaf. In the story given here it is portrayed as if God summoned a flood from nowhere, instead of first making it rain as it is described in the Bible.