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Phrenoblysis: Special brain and mind growth periods. II. Human mental development
Author(s) -
Epstein H. T.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.420070305
Subject(s) - psychology , brain function , mental development , developmental psychology , brain development , function (biology) , neuroscience , biology , evolutionary biology
Spurts in the mental age of humans are shown to be recoverable from data giving the average mental age as a function of chronological age. Data from 13 independent studies are shown to give a highly consistent spectrum of ages at which spurts are found; these are 2‐4, 6‐8, 10‐12, and 14‐16, with an especially clear low rate of growth at 12‐14 yr. These ages correlate very well with those found for spurts in brain and skull sizes so that an obvious working hypothesis is that mutations for increased brain weight were selected for by virtue of the greater mental ability thus afforded to humans.