The notion of “procept” helps in the analysis of cognitive difficulties related to symbolism. When Eddie Gray and I first coined the term I felt, in a moment of selfdoubt, that all we had done was to give a name to something that was well-known to the
mathematics education community. Subsequently I realised it was more. By giving it a name, we had essentially encapsulated the process of encapsulation. This enables us to discuss different kinds of encapsulation in different contexts and to see how learners face cognitive difficulties when procepts behave differently in different contexts.