Can someone explain what abstract reasoning is to me?

Question

and how its related to iq.

In: Other

Answer 1

Think about a dog.

What kind of dog did you think of? A lot of people think of golden retrievers, but there are a lot of dog breeds. You might have even been thinking of a specific dog.

“Dog” is an abstract concept. It just means a particular kind of animal, and we have to use more specific words like “terrier” to describe specifics. We call those “concrete” ideas.

People who are good at abstract reasoning are good at thinking about things like how “dog” is different from “the big red dog named Clifford”. And when they think like that, they also might note how Elmo, a red muppet, is *kind of similar* to a big red dog in that they’re both red things. “Red things” is an abstract thought. Fire engines are often red, so now we’re thinking about those. And apples. And so on.

We consider people who are good at abstract reasoning to be smarter because they tend to be able to solve complex problems with it. When they look at the problem, they know the solution is “something that does X”. So they start to reason, “What are things that do that?” A less abstract person can only solve problems if they have experiences that teach them how.

Example:

Suppose I ask two people to explain how to boil water with an assortment of household items in front of them. A tea kettle or a pot is the “best” answer. But what if I didn’t give them one?

A person who thinks abstractly might note I’ve included a glass bowl and some candles. That’s a heat source and something that can hold water, which is *like* a stove and a pot. So that *could* maybe boil some water. A person who does not think abstractly might never notice. To them, you need a stove and a pot and they see neither so they’re stuck.

That’s why abstract thinking is useful for problem solving. Once you describe what you want, you can start thinking about things that are *like* what you want and some combination of those things are probably a solution. If you can’t think through abstraction very well, you can only solve problems you’ve been taught how to solve, which is still useful but not *as* useful.