Abstract Reasoning Cognitive Ability Tests

These are tests of Fluid reasoning (Gf) designed to examine strategic thinking and logical reasoning.

These tests help examine a person’s ability to solve more complex problems. These tests are popular because they are largely unrelated to education or acculturation. These tests are therefore good choices for pre-employment testing because they assess candidates on an even playing field.

Abstract reasoning tests are good measures of a candidate’s raw intelligence. As a measure of Fluid reasoning (Gf), they are defined by requiring a candidate to use deliberate and controlled mental operations, often in a flexible manner, and to solve novel problems that cannot be performed automatically.

Mental operations often include drawing inferences, concept formation, classification, generalisation, generating and testing hypotheses, identifying relations, comprehending implications, problem solving, extrapolating, and transforming information.

Inductive and deductive reasoning are generally considered the hallmark indicators of Gf. Gf has been linked to cognitive complexity which is typically defined as the greater use of a wide and diverse array of elementary cognitive processes during performance. Historically this ability is often referred to as fluid intelligence.

Abstract reasoning tests are widely used in pre-employment testing regimes. They are an extremely useful type of psychometric test that measures cognitive ability and potential.