Mental Age

Synonyms

Age equivalent; Test age

Definition

Mental age is an estimate of a person’s cognitive development derived from raw score performance on intelligence, achievement, or neuropsychological tests. Mental age is most frequently estimated in children, likely due to the emergence and protracted developmental course of cognitive skills during this period. A child’s mental age for any cognitive skill is estimated by matching the child’s raw score to the age group within the normative sample whose mean raw score is closest to that of the child. For instance, if the mean raw score of 4-year-olds within the normative sample is 5/20 on a phoneme elision task, then a 7-year-old child who achieves a raw score of 5/20 has a mental age of 4 years for phonological processing. Estimates of mental age are available for several widely used tests (e.g., Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Third Edition; Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fourth Edition; and Woodcock...