Home > Encyclopedia of Psychology > Ability

Knowledge or smooth skill, including the potential to acquire knowledge or skills and those already acquired.

The capacity to learn, commonly known as aptitude, and the demonstration of skills and knowledge already learned, called achievement, are among the factors used to evaluate intelligence. When evaluating or comparing subjects, two kinds of abilities are considered: verbal ability, including reading comprehension, ability to converse, vocabulary, and the use of language; and problem-solving ability, which includes a person's capacity to make good decisions given a set of circumstances.

Relatively straightforward tests of ability are often used by employers to determine an applicant's skills. For example, a person applying for a job as a word processor may be given a keyboarding test, while a bus-driving applicant...