Procedural and declarative memory processes: Individuals with and without mental retardation

Learning and retention of procedural versus declarative memory tasks were examined with 26 young adults with mild mental retardation and 27 school children matched for MA. Results revealed a similar pattern of task performance. Performance of the young adults with mild mental retardation was inferior to that of the control subjects on both types of tasks. However, learning rate and retention over time were comparable, thereby maintaining the control group's consistent advantage throughout all repeated trials. These results are consistent with previous findings for individuals with mental retardation tested on memory and problem-solving tasks. Theoretical implications of this pattern of results for individuals with mild mental retardation were discussed.