Abstraction is the cognitive process of drawing away mentally, the semantic features of an object.
Abstraction is the cognitive process of drawing away mentally, the semantic features (I am calling them “bonds”) of an object such as a shoe). In just everyday conversation we would call them the “characteristics” of a shoe.
Eventually the child will note its shape and size, its texture, its weight and what is done with it, and perhaps how it tastes (unless you can get to him fast enough).
It is on the bases of a comparison of these bonds that the child will eventually broaden his concept of shoe to include other similar but not exactly the same objects.
When the child looks at a shoe in a concrete fashion, the process of abstraction is not happening.