Impairment of cognitive memory inhibition in individuals with intellectual disability: A meta-analysis

Cognitive inhibition impairment is intimately related to the forgetfulness of relevant information. This meta-analysis aims to synthesise the evidence of impaired function of cognitive inhibition processes over memory in individuals with intellectual disability (ID).

Eleven studies were selected and analysed and included a total of 683 participants. The studies were categorised according to variables such as the task used, the processes involved, the sensory modalities and the method.

Despite the small sample of studies, the results revealed significant difficulties with cognitive memory inhibition (CMI) tasks in individuals with ID compared with typical development (TD) individuals (d = 0.62). CMI problems were found in all life stages except the 19-45-year-old stage. In this stage, there was a smaller amount of evidence even though it included the 31-40-year-old range, during which premature aging has been observed in ID.

An impairment of CMI in people with ID was observed. More studies are needed to more reliably assess the potential moderating role of age and other factors.