Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to analyze memory performance and memory process in two spatial location conditions in adolescents with mild or moderate mental retardation and in persons with no intellectual disability. One condition was a 2×2 matrix, and the other, a 3×3 matrix. In these matrices, 72 color picture cards were arranged so that one book consisted of 18 pages, and the other, 8. Each subject was asked to relocate the picture cards after looking through each page of one of these books. The results showed there was no difference in memory performance between the two spatial location conditions, or between the group of subjects with mental retardation and the group without. Moreover, the sequence of presentation of the picture cards did not affect memory performance. These results suggest that memory of spatial location is not loaded very much in the memory system, and that subjects did not use a rehearsal strategy. These findings show that subjects with mental retardation can process spatial location as well as subjects without retardation because memory of spatial location is not loaded very much in the memory system.
