Short-term retention in retarded adolescents as a function of load, delay, and interpolated activity

The present study investigated certain variables influencing the short-term retention of retarded adolescents. Forty trainable and 40 educable retarded adolescents were shown slides containing arrays of 2, 3, 4, or 5 chromatic pictures to be recalled after varying periods (0, 18, 36, and 140 sec) of filled or unfilled activity. Results indicated that recall in the unfilled condition remained relatively stable over time, while in the filled condition recall was deleteriously affected by a distracter task (p less than .01). No significant retention slope differences were observed between the two IQ groups. As is typically found with nonretarded adults, the curve of forgetting for the retarded individuals described a negatively accelerated function. With increasing proactive interference there were increasing decrements in short-term recall, with neither IQ group differing from the other. It was suggested that both decay and interference contribute to the short-term forgetting of retarded people.