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Mental Age

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Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development

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Synonyms

Academic ability; Intellectual ability; IQ; Mental ability

Definition

Mental age, often abbreviated MA, is a measure of mental ability as determined by intelligence tests.

Description

Mental age (mental level) was developed as a means of measuring a child’s mental ability using intelligence tests. The concept was devised by Alfred Binet and his colleague Theodore Simeon, who had been commission by the French government to investigate education for children with mental disability and specifically, to develop a method of distinguishing the normal child from the child with intellectual disability whom would not benefit from normal schooling [3].

The subsequent scales that were developed by Binet and Simeon used a variety of tests items that they selected as being suitable to assess a particular ability. The test performance of 300 normally functioning French children between 3 and 13 years was used to determine the age at which a child could be expected to pass a particular test...

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References

  1. American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Text revision (4th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

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  2. Anastasi, A., & Urbina, S. (1997). Psychological testing (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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  3. Cianciolo, A. T., & Sternberg, R. J. (2004). Intelligence a brief history. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

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  4. Jacoby, R., & Glauberman, N. (1995). The bell curve debate. New York: Random House.

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  5. Lewis M. Terman (1916). The measurement of intelligence. New York: Boston.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8024, New Zealand

    Audrey McKinlay (Dr)

Authors
  1. Audrey McKinlay
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Neurology, Learning and Behavior Center, 230 South 500 East, Suite 100, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84102, USA

    Sam Goldstein Ph.D.

  2. Department of Psychology MS 2C6, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 22030, USA

    Jack A. Naglieri Ph.D. (Professor of Psychology) (Professor of Psychology)

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© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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McKinlay, A. (2011). Mental Age. In: Goldstein, S., Naglieri, J.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9_1763

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9_1763

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-77579-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-387-79061-9

  • eBook Packages: Behavioral Science

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