Exercising Abilities

According to one prominent view of exercising abilities (e.g., Millar 2009), a subject, S, counts as exercising an ability to ϕ if and only if S successfully ϕs. Such an ‘exercise-success’ thesis looks initially very plausible for abilities, perhaps even obviously or analytically true. In this paper, however, I will be defending the position that one can in fact exercise an ability to do one thing by doing some entirely distinct thing, and in doing so I’ll highlight various reasons (epistemological, metaphysical and linguistic) that favor the alternative approach I develop over views that hold that the exercise of an ability is a success notion in the sense Millar maintains

Abilities of Village Health Volunteers in Determining Drug Related Problems for Diabetes and Hypertension Patients

The objective of this study was to assess the Village Health Volunteers (VHVs) on their knowledge and skills for determining drug-related problems (DRPs) for hypertension (HTN) and diabetes (DM) patients. This study was conducted among 36 VHVs between March and October, 2014 in ten districts of Trang Province. The semi-structured questionnaire interviews and tests have been developed according to knowledge and skills based health determinants for DRPs. The DRPs training program was assigned including, 1) a short course training (2-day) and hands-on training (1-week) followed up, 2) field work for determining DRPs (16-week) and 3) an assessment for determining DRPs in knowledge and competent skills. All completed data of 25 female VHVs were analyzed with age of 42.93 years old on average. About 68% were age higher than 40 years old and most of them were Para rubber farmers (76%). Most of them had a primary education level (60%) and almost a half had more than ten years in VHVs\u27 service (n =12; 48%). Their knowledge scores for determining DRPs were 12.88 on average, in total of 15 points. Their overall scores for skills presented were 35.48 out of 50 points in total. In conclusion, this program can enhance VHVs\u27 abilities for determining DRPs for HTN and DM patients. Our findings may contribute to future development of VHVs program for improving VHVs competent skills for DRPs chronic diseases

Corporate abilities

This brief paper aims to discuss (as a review) the notion of organisational/corporate abilities, a term that, albeit frequently used in the business world, often presents ambiguities in terms of its meaning. We tried to uncover an exact definition for it using different approaches, as well as models of organisational description and/or diagnostic value; however, none of these could provide us with a distinct answer. As the paper could not afford to undertake the introduction of every single approach that has so far been laid down in this subject, we cannot endeavour to formulate our own definition; our work only serves to illustrate that the concept has deeper meanings and thus cannot be used without interpretation. It can have different meanings, which sometimes inhibits the factual description of a given scenario, even though that is what terminologies are usually for. We have concluded that an accurate definition of the concept would be essential, as those specialising in organisational science could benefit from its standardised use.Organisational competence, organizational ability, managerial science, management tools, organiszational science, organisational diagnosis

Abilities to do otherwise

In this paper I argue that there are different ways that an agent may be able to do otherwise and that therefore, when free will is understood as requiring that an agent be able to do otherwise, we face the following question: which way of being able to do otherwise is most relevant to free will? I answer this question by first discussing the nature of intrinsic dispositions and abilities, arguing that for each action type there is a spectrum of intrinsic abilities. I suggest that recognising this allows us to articulate two ways in which an intrinsic ability is general (such that there are two kinds of non-general ability). And I argue that the abilities most relevant to free will need to be non-general in both of the ways identified. Along the way I show why these points threaten to undermine Vihvelin’s dispositionalist account of free will

Cognitive abilities and portfolio choice

We study the relation between cognitive abilities and stockholding using the recent Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which has detailed data on wealth and portfolio composition of individuals aged 50+ in 11 European countries and three indicators of cognitive abilities: mathematical, verbal fluency, and recall skills. We find that the propensity to invest in stocks is strongly associated with cognitive abilities, for both direct stock market participation and indirect participation through mutual funds and retirement accounts. Since the decision to invest in less information-intensive assets (such as bonds) is less strongly related to cognitive abilities, we conclude that the association between cognitive abilities and stockholding is driven by information constraints, rather than by features of preferences or psychological traits

Assessing pupils' abilities

Stephen Gibbons and Arnaud Chevalier investigate differences between pupils' test scores and their teachers' assessments.

Reinforcing Students’ Research Abilities via Digital Repositories

Computer science graduates are requested to possess complex professional abilities including research skills. In this paper we justify the development of a departmental repository to assist all non-auditorium activities and summarize its benefits. We are convinced that this is the way students and teachers to form interim learning societies

Cognitive Abilities and Behavioral Biases

We use a simple, three-item test for cognitive abilities to investigate whether established behavioral biases that play a prominent role in behavioral economics and finance are related to cognitive abilities. We find that higher test scores on the Cognitive Reflection Test of Frederick (2005) indeed are correlated with lower incidences of the conjunction fallacy, conservatism in updating probabilities, and overconfidence. Test scores are also significantly related to subjects’ time and risk preferences. We find no influence on anchoring. However, even if biases are lower for people with higher cognitive abilities, they still remain substantial.cognitive reflection test, behavioral finance, biases, cognitive abilities

Face Cognition: A Set of Distinct Mental Abilities

Perceiving, learning, and recognizing faces swiftly and accurately is of paramount importance to humans as a social species. Though established functional models of face cognition<sup>1,2</sup> suggest the existence of multiple abilities in face cognition, the number of such abilities and the relationships among them and to other cognitive abilities can only be determined by studying individual differences. Here we investigated individual differences in a broad variety of indicators of face cognition and identified for the first time three component abilities: face perception, face memory, and the speed of face cognition. These component abilities were replicated in an independent study and were found to be robustly separable from established cognitive abilities, specifically immediate and delayed memory, mental speed, general cognitive ability, and object cognition. The analysis of individual differences goes beyond functional and neurological models of face cognition by demonstrating the difference between face perception and face learning, and by making evident the distinction between speed and accuracy of face cognition. Our indicators also provide a means to develop tests and training programs for face cognition that are broader and more precise than those currently available).<sup>3,4</sup&#x3e