But fluid intelligence, the ability to analyze abstract situations involving novel sets of rules, plays an outsize role.

FORBES: Can An Hour-Long Aptitude Test Predict Startup Home Runs? Adeo Ressi Thinks So

Superior mental faculties, such as language and the ability to engage in abstract problem solving, are the sort of explanations that are currently all the rage.

ECONOMIST: Gaining the upper hand

But when the same test was presented simply as an abstract laboratory tool, with no relevance to ability, the scores of blacks and whites were virtually identical.

FORBES: Turning Gender-War-Swords into Ploughshares

People who were asked to reflect on their many past successes or a specific failure scored roughly 10% better on tests of mathematical ability, as well as verbal, spatial, and abstract reasoning, than those who reflected on either many past failures or a single specific success.

FORBES: Yesterday Influences Your Performance Today in Surprising Ways

She also prides herself in her ability to think and speak in a logical, rational, linear, detailed, abstract and conceptual manner.

FORBES: An Experts Dilemma -Media Training

"Going abstract" isn't really all that easy, and the excitement and success of this exhibition comes from its ability to help us participate in the difficulties faced by many of these artists.

WSJ: The Concrete Challenges of Abstraction | Inventing Abstraction | By Tom L. Freudenheim