{ "model": { "rank": 14408, "code": "thing-ability", "model_id": "vr.tr.ability", "name": "ability", "purpose": "the quality of being able to perform; a quality that permits or facilitates achievement or accomplishment", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.QLT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/ability/", "tier": 2, "score": 35, "payload": { "layer": "wordnet", "aliases": [ "adaptability", "flexibility", "flexibleness", "wiggle room", "pliability", "pliancy", "pliantness", "suppleness", "associability", "associableness", "sensitivity", "sensitiveness", "antenna", "feeler", "defensiveness", "bunker mentality", "perceptiveness", "sea power", "competence", "competency", "fitness", "linguistic competence", "proficiency", "interoperability", "magical ability", "magical power", "lycanthropy", "penetration", "physical ability", "contractility", "astringency", "stypsis", "capability", "capableness", "defensibility", "executability", "capacity", "military capability", "military strength", "strength" ], "aliasCount": 52, "merged": 35, "knownIn": 0, "facets": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert", "mobility": "not-applicable", "scale": "not-applicable", "affordances": [ "observable" ] }, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "noun.attribute", "senseRank": 0, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "oewn:2024", "synset": "oewn-05207437-n", "ili": "i64298", "license": "CC BY 4.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-13T23:23:27Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 4, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-ABILITY", "registryId": "vr.tr.ability", "name": "ability", "version": "0.2.0-wave.4", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.QLT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/ability/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.ability", "name": "ability", "purpose": "Let an agent explain ability, relay psychological, educational and disability perspectives from dictionary, psychology and disability rights sources with positions attributed, describe the named aliases and note they are related qualities, and distinguish ability from skill, aptitude, talent, capacity in law and ableist framing.", "definition": "In the WordNet sense, the quality of being able to perform, a quality that permits or facilitates achievement or accomplishment, including physical, cognitive and social abilities, with related qualities the registry aliases name such as adaptability, flexibility or flexibleness and pliability or pliancy, meaning the capacity to change or bend, and wiggle room, an informal term for latitude to manoeuvre; psychology distinguishes ability from skill, aptitude and achievement, and disability rights frameworks describe how barriers, not only impairments, limit what people can do.", "what_it_is_for": "Naming capacity to perform.", "affordances": [ "explain the concept", "relay psychological and educational perspectives", "describe named aliases", "relay disability rights framing" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Capacity to act", "Multiple domains", "Measurable in part", "Context-dependent" ], "appearance": "Not a physical object; inferred from performance.", "visual_identification": [ "Quality of being able to perform", "Adaptability, flexibility, flexibleness, wiggle room, pliability, pliancy", "Skills are learned proficiencies; aptitude is potential; talent is natural gift; legal capacity concerns decisions; ableism devalues disabled people" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "WordNet hypernym", "typical_range": "quality", "unit": "note", "note": "" }, { "quantity": "UN CRPD", "typical_range": "2006", "unit": "year", "note": "Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities" }, { "quantity": "Carroll three-stratum theory", "typical_range": "1993", "unit": "year", "note": "cognitive abilities" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "cognitive abilities", "physical abilities", "social and emotional abilities", "adaptability and flexibility", "latitude or wiggle room" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "quality", "why": "in WordNet terms" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "skill", "why": "" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "aptitude", "why": "" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "social model of disability", "why": "" } ], "identifiers": [ { "scheme": "WordNet", "value_or_pattern": "oewn-04731092-n", "note": "hypernym of ability" } ], "standards_and_regulation": [ "UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities", "Anti-discrimination laws", "Psychological test standards" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Ableist framing", "Overinterpreting ability tests", "Treating related qualities as synonyms" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What ability is.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is ability, and how does it differ from skill, aptitude, talent, legal capacity and ableist framing?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about psychology, education, work, disability rights or language?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "aliases", "name": "Aliases", "description": "Named aliases.", "findings": [ { "id": "aliases-finding", "name": "Aliases", "description": "Aliases.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do adaptability, flexibility, pliability and wiggle room mean, and how do they relate to ability?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific quality?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "psychology", "name": "Psychology", "description": "Psychology.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "cognitive", "name": "Cognitive abilities", "description": "Cognitive abilities.", "findings": [ { "id": "cognitive-finding", "name": "Cognitive abilities", "description": "Cognitive abilities.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do models such as Cattell-Horn-Carroll describe cognitive abilities?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "testing", "name": "Testing", "description": "Ability testing.", "findings": [ { "id": "testing-finding", "name": "Testing", "description": "Testing.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the uses and limits of ability tests, with debates attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "disability", "name": "Disability", "description": "Disability perspectives.", "rationale": "Regulation.", "layers": [ { "id": "social", "name": "Social model", "description": "Social model.", "findings": [ { "id": "social-finding", "name": "Social model", "description": "Social model.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does the social model of disability reframe ability?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits social model of disability?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "language", "name": "Language", "description": "Respectful language.", "findings": [ { "id": "language-finding", "name": "Language", "description": "Language.", "questions": [ { "text": "What language do disability organisations recommend, with preferences attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation respectful?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Work and learning.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "growth", "name": "Growth mindset", "description": "Beliefs about ability.", "findings": [ { "id": "growth-finding", "name": "Growth mindset", "description": "Growth mindset.", "questions": [ { "text": "What does research say about mindset and beliefs about ability, with findings and replication debates attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits mindset?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "adaptability", "name": "Adaptability", "description": "Adaptability at work.", "findings": [ { "id": "adaptability-finding", "name": "Adaptability", "description": "Adaptability.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is adaptability studied in workplaces?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits adaptive performance?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should adaptability and flexibility be moved to their own entries?", "Should wiggle room be marked as an idiom?", "How should psychology sources be linked?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched.", "facetsInferred": false, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a ability, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "the quality of being able to perform; a quality that permits or facilitates achievement or accomplishment", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: adaptability, flexibility, flexibleness, wiggle room, pliability, pliancy, pliantness, suppleness, associability, associableness, sensitivity, sensitiveness.", "35 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a ability, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "adaptability", "flexibility", "flexibleness", "wiggle room", "pliability", "pliancy", "pliantness", "suppleness", "associability", "associableness", "sensitivity", "sensitiveness" ] } ], "standing": "35 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one ability from another, and a ability from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a ability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a ability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a ability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a ability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a ability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a ability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a ability sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a ability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a ability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a ability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a ability from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a ability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a ability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a ability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a ability passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a ability between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a ability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a ability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a ability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a ability, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a ability is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a ability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a ability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a ability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What ability is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of ability are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is ability operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of ability and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of ability?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as ability?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a ability came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a ability and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a ability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a ability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a ability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a ability is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a ability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a ability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a ability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }