Smarts seem to catch our attention.
In 1921 Louis Terman defined intelligence as the ability to carry on abstract thinking . Herbert Woodrow called it the capacity to acquire capacity . In his book, The Triarchic Mind, Robert Sternberg defined intellect as the ability to learn and use information to shape or adapt to our circumstances . Since man is the only animal to participate in and actively control the shaping of his environment, intellect is our unique talent. Another way to define intellect is the ability to make distinctions .