PATTERN GENERALIZATION & ABSTRACTION

Once we have recognised patterns in our problems, we use abstraction to gather the general characteristics and to filter out of the details we do not need in order to solve our problem.

Why is abstraction important?

Abstraction allows us to create a general idea of what the problem is and how to solve it. The process instructs us to remove all specific detail, and any patterns that will not help us solve our problem. This helps us form our idea of the problem. This idea is known as a ‘model’.

If we don’t abstract we may end up with the wrong solution to the problem we are trying to solve. With our cat example, if we didn’t abstract we might think that all cats have long tails and short fur. Having abstracted, we know that although cats have tails and fur, not all tails are long and not all fur is short. In this case, abstraction has helped us to form a clearer model of a cat.