generalization

[ jen-er-uh-luh-zey-shuhn ]

noun

1. the act or process of generalizing.
2. a result of this process; a general statement, idea, or principle.
3. Logic.
   1. a proposition asserting something to be true either of all members of a certain class or of an indefinite part of that class.
   2. the process of obtaining such propositions.
4. Psychology.
   1. Also called stim·u·lus gen·er·al·i·za·tion [stim, -y, uh, -l, uh, s jen-er-, uh, -l, uh, -, zey, -sh, uh, n]. the act or process of responding to a stimulus similar to but distinct from the conditioned stimulus.
   2. Also called re·sponse gen·er·al·i·za·tion [ri-, spons, jen-er-, uh, -l, uh, -, zey, -sh, uh, n]. the act or process of making a different but similar response to the same stimulus.
   3. Also called me·di·at·ed gen·er·al·i·za·tion [mee, -dee-ey-tid jen-er-, uh, -l, uh, -, zey, -sh, uh, n]. the act or process of responding to a stimulus not physically similar to the conditioned stimulus and not previously encountered in conditioning.
   4. the act or process of perceiving similarity or relation between different stimuli, as between words, colors, sounds, lights, concepts or feelings; the formation of a general notion.

generalization

/ ˌdʒɛnrəlaɪˈzeɪʃən /

noun

1. a principle, theory, etc, with general application
2. the act or an instance of generalizing
3. psychol the evoking of a response learned to one stimulus by a different but similar stimulus See also conditioning
4. logic the derivation of a general statement from a particular one, formally by prefixing a quantifier and replacing a subject term by a bound variable. If the quantifier is universal ( universal generalization ) the argument is not in general valid; if it is existential ( existential generalization ) it is valid
5. logic any statement ascribing a property to every member of a class ( universal generalization ) or to one or more members ( existential generalization )

Word History and Origins

Origin of generalization¹

First recorded in 1755–65; generalize + -ation

Example Sentences

Admittedly, that is a generalization, but it’s one worth making.

From Los Angeles Times

"One of the benefits of this approach is that we can combine policies to get the best of both worlds. For instance, a policy trained on real-world data might be able to achieve more dexterity, while a policy trained on simulation might be able to achieve more generalization," Wang says.

From Science Daily

Her work resists generalization — Manzoor resists it, too.

From New York Times

However, the Prakash-proxy model trained only on color images did not show good generalization to grayscale or hue-manipulated images.

From Science Daily

The robust generalization of the developmentally inspired model is not merely a consequence of it having been trained on both color and grayscale images; the temporal ordering of these images makes a big difference.

From Science Daily

Related Words

• acumen
• analysis
• argument
• hypothesis
• inference
• interpretation
• premise
• proposition
• rationale
• thinking