The Consideration of Abstraction in Psychology and ComputerScience

Abstract

The slogan "by teaching programming, abstraction capacity is developed" played a key role in the acceptance of the incorporation of programming teaching in schools. It should be noted that the role of abstraction in Computing is central, to the point of being conceptualized as "the art of abstraction". But, is it the same abstraction that psychology teaches? To answer this question, we reviewed the literature from both fields and found intrafield and interfield heterogeneity. While in the field of psychology the piagetian influence makes the association between abstraction, generalization and fluid intelligence very strong, in the field of computer science this association is not present. It is treated as a very powerful but much more specific tool, with at least three different meanings. Based on them and on previous bibliography, we outline a mathematization proposal to clarify their differences.