Rate of forgetting and intelligence

Research on mentally retarded subjects indicates that the well established relationship between learning rate and intelligence is not accompanied by a comparable relationship between forgetting rate and intelligence. To date, however, almost nothing is known about the link between intelligence and forgetting when subjects are exclusively drawn from the normal ability ranges. In the present study, one hundred and sixteen normal young men were asked to recall problem solutions after performing a distractor task consisting of one, two, or three speeded math items. The results indicate that longer distractor intervals result in diminished recall, but, more importantly, that high and low ability subjects forget at equal rates.