The participants'
mental age was established after a psychological evaluation with the New Version of the Stanford-Binet Method, adapted by Terman and Merril (1979) [25], used for children from two to five years old.
The requirement that the offender have "as great understanding, as ordinarily a child of fourteen years hath" is intuitively analogous to the concept of "
mental age." (294) Broadly defined,
mental age gauges defendants' "incapacity to function at an adult level cognitively and morally despite [their] chronological age." (295) It would seem that the Court could employ the
mental age concept and adopt a per se rule that prohibits the execution of people with a
mental age below fourteen.
There are many reasons for this disparity between our physical and
mental ages. This may happen due to medical disorders, or just be literally ' in our heads.' Anti- ageing experts say that while getting older is inevitable, ageing doesn't have to be.
O'Connor responded: 'Well, the
mental age limit really defines the period at which a young man or woman of talent ought to pack his or her bags and get out.'
After demonstrating that, beyond three years of age, there is no direct maturation effect on the acquisition of ToM, (but only an indirect effect by the way of
mental age which depends on maturation), it can be asked if, in its contents, the acquisition of a ToM (i.e.
Regardless of their level of cognitive deficit, they could not give consent to sexual intercourse, since the level of their intellectual and adaptive functioning was such that they had the
mental age equivalent of minors.
I was never very good at my nine times table, so I imagine my
mental age is going to be way up in the telephone numbers but now I have come over all gadget mad I plan to get one - although I think I might get
mental age down to at least double figures before I share it with anyone else.
Six years ago, solicitors acting for Straffen called for his case to be reopened, saying that he should not have stood trial, as he had a
mental age of nine and a half.
A MAN said to have a
mental age of 10 has been banned from entering public toilets.
Tammy McGregor - who has a
mental age of 12 - also had hot water poured over her head during her two-and-a-halfhour ordeal.
Billy, who had a
mental age of two, died on May 29 of multiple organ failure.
A man with a
mental age of a primary school pupil is being sought in Cardiff and Porthcawl.
