mental age

In Psychology, the mental age ( AM ) is the age which corresponds to the intellectual degree of development. It is measured by several personality tests (for example, a child of four years mental age is able to indicate, on 17 images, 12 objects).

“Traditional” IQ known as is the mental age divided by the real age, multiplied per hundred (a 10 year old child showing the same results as the average of the 12 year old children is “twelve years old of mental age” and a traditional IQ of 120:120 = (12/10) ⅹ 100). The normal quotient is thus of 100. The early children are ainsis the children who have a mental age strongly higher than their real age (IQ higher than 130). On the contrary, the delayed children are those which have a mental age much lower than their age (IQ lower than 75)

The concept of mental age remains a concept very discussed and is especially indicating for the young children and the people intelligently defective.