What does Mental Age (MA) measure?

a) Biological age from birth

b) Intellectual development relative to age group

c) Performance on an intelligence test

d) IQ score multiplied by 100

b

In 1905, Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon, made the first successful attempt to formally measure intelligence. In 1908, when the scale was revised, they gave the concept of Mental Age (MA), which is a measure of a person’s intellectual development relative to people of her/his age group. A mental age of 5 means that a child’s performance on an intelligence test equals the average performance level of a group of 5-year olds.