This leads into the area of concepts, divisions, and polarizations as covered by de Bono. A limited and coherent attention span arises directly from the mechanics of the self maximizing memory surface that is mind. This limited attention span means that one only reacts to a bit of the total environment. Separation into units, selection of units, and combination of units in different ways together, provide a very powerful information processing system. When a unit is obtained by dividing up the total situation or by putting together other units, it establishes it as a pattern in its own right instead of just being part of another pattern.
New information is altered so that it fits an established category.
Once it has done so, there is no indication that it is any different from anything else under that category. The fewer the categories the greater the degree of shift. Page 2 Oakley worked out the theory of man's thought evolution and development based on a generic meaning of Man the Tool Maker. His balance point was between tradition and invention in social groupings. Human culture in all its diversity is the outcome of this capacity for conceptual thinking, but the leading factors in its development are tradition coupled with invention.