I have begun noticing that i do this(moving up and down the ladder of abstraction) in all my communications. I realize i am doing it by reflex/habit. Trying to observe conditions that trigger a move up or down. So far there seems to be a correlation between the level of uncertainty i feel about an answer and the level of abstraction at which i verbalize my answer. Infact, i have found that the more uncertain i am about i tend to take the descriptive,detailed examples route.