Condensation (psychology)

Condensation (in psychology) is a way of compressing lots of information or ideas into a single, simple idea or picture. It can help us to make sense of complicated topics or problems. For example, imagine you have been working on a bag of mixed nuts. You might have a few different kinds of nuts like cashews, peanuts, and almonds. To condense this information, we might say, “Nuts are mixed together.” This makes more sense to someone who is 5 years old than saying “Look at the mixed bag of cashews, peanuts, and almonds.”