A measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance. Thus, a child who does as well as the average 8-year-old is said to have a mental age of 8.

• A. Emotional intelligence
• B. Mental age
• C. Stanford-Binet
• D. IQ

Answer: (B)

Mental age is the measure of intelligence test performance that links how well someone does on the test to the age at which that level of performance is typical. Devised by Binet, it means that if a child performs as well as the average child of a certain age, that age is the child’s mental age. For example, if someone scores as well as the average eight-year-old, their mental age is eight. This concept helps separate how well someone performs from their actual, or chronological, age, and it historically underpinned the way IQ was calculated by comparing mental age to chronological age. The other terms refer to different ideas: emotional intelligence concerns recognizing and managing emotions; the Stanford-Binet is the specific test that uses these ideas; IQ is the standardized score that results from comparing mental age to chronological age.