Pictorial Reasoning: Picture Analogies, Picture Classification, and Series
Pictorial Reasoning uses drawings of objects, people, animals, and scenes instead of words. The OLSAT uses three formats: picture analogies, picture classification, and series. The pictures are deliberately simple, so the challenge is to identify the relationship, not to interpret artistic detail.
Core rules
- Picture analogies: The first pair shows a relationship. Name it in words-animal to sound, object to user, whole to part, action to result-then apply the same relationship to the second pair.
- Picture classification: Three or more pictures share a category or function; one does not. Test each candidate rule against every picture.
- Series: Look for a pattern that changes across positions: alternating objects, growing size, rotation, color change, or a repeated cycle. Track one feature at a time, then check whether two features change together.
Worked example
A picture of a dog is paired with a picture of a bone; a picture of a cat is followed by a blank. The relationship is animal to typical food. The answer should be a picture of fish or cat food-not a picture of a dog, which repeats the first animal, and not a picture of a leash, which is associated with dogs but not the food relationship.
Traps
- Matching by color or cuteness instead of by relationship.
- Ignoring the direction of the pair (bone : dog is not the same as dog : bone).
- In series, assuming the pattern repeats after two items when it actually cycles through three.
- Missing a size or position change because the object identity stays the same.
- Choosing an answer that fits one picture but not the whole set.
Say the rule aloud in a short sentence before marking the answer.