conceptization
Conceptization is the mental process by which individuals form, organize, and articulate concepts. It involves abstraction, generalization, categorization, and the assignment of labels, with the aim of producing usable mental representations that can classify objects, ideas, and phenomena. In practice, conceptization shapes how people understand, reason about, and communicate about the world.
The term is used across disciplines, including philosophy, cognitive science, linguistics, and education. In some contexts
Key mechanisms include abstraction from concrete instances to core attributes, analogical reasoning, induction, and the structuring
Stages typically involve exposure to stimuli or information, extraction of salient features, groupings into categories, assignment
Applications and study: Conceptization is central to learning, communication, and scientific theorizing. It is investigated in
Limitations include ambiguity, cultural variation in categorization, and definitional drift over time; researchers emphasize precise operationalization