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Developmental changes in head‐circumference and mental‐performance growth rates: A test of epstein's phrenoblysis hypothesis
Author(s) -
McCall Robert B.,
Meyers Edmund D.,
Hartman John,
Roche Alex F.
Publication year - 1983
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.420160602
Subject(s) - head circumference , concordance , psychology , test (biology) , demography , developmental psychology , medicine , biology , gestational age , pregnancy , paleontology , genetics , sociology
Epstein's phrenoblysis states that brain growth and mental growth occur in correlated spurts at 3–10 months and 2–4, 6–8, 10–12 or 13, and 14–16 or 17 years of age. The present study was the first to test statistically such spurts in head‐circumference and mental‐age growth rates and to assess any correspondence in individual differences between spurts in the two variables in a single sample of children measured serially between 2.5 and 17 years of age. While the statistically significant spurts observed in each variable did fall within the hypothesized age periods, the chance rate for such theoretical concordance was high and several hypothesized spurts were not supported. Moreover, no relationship existed within individuals between head‐circumference and mental‐age growth‐rate patterns.