ability, power - possession of the qualities (especially mental qualities) required to do something or get something done; "danger heightened his powers of discrimination"

attention - the faculty or power of mental concentration; "keeping track of all the details requires your complete attention"

language, speech - the mental faculty or power of vocal communication; "language sets homo sapiens apart from all other animals"

retentiveness, retention, memory - the power of retaining and recalling past experience; "he had a good memory when he was younger"

intellect, reason, understanding - the capacity for rational thought or inference or discrimination; "we are told that man is endowed with reason and capable of distinguishing good from evil"

sensory faculty, sentiency, sentience, sense, sensation - the faculty through which the external world is apprehended; "in the dark he had to depend on touch and on his senses of smell and hearing"

volition, will - the capability of conscious choice and decision and intention; "the exercise of their volition we construe as revolt"- George Meredith