Absence seizures (ASs) are brief periods of lack of consciousness, characterized by 2.5-4 Hz spike-wave discharges in the thalamocortical network in the EEG. Together with ASs, 60% of children with ASs show neuropsychological comorbidities, including cognitive and mood impairments, that can be present before the epilepsy diagnosis and even after the seizures are pharmacologically controlled. Since cognitive alteration may be subtle and task-specific, their presence may be confounded by an anxiety-like phenotype, and no study has tested anxiety and memory in the same animal model of ASs. Using the Genetic Absence Epilepsy Rat from Strasbourg (GAERS), their inbred non-epileptic control (NEC) rats and Wistar outbred controls, we assessed reflex, motor and learning developmental milestones from postnatal day (PND) 10-28 and at PND90-120 we tested anxiety and memory function. GAERS exhibit early eye-opening and physical/sensorimotor development compared to NEC. Memory deficits in GAERS develop about 2 weeks after the first expression of EEG epileptiform activity. Adult GAERS do not exhibit higher anxiety-like behavior and neophobia compared to both NEC and Wistar rats. In contrast, GAERS show decreased spontaneous alternation, spatial working memory and cross-modal recognition compared to both controls. Moreover, GAERS preferentially used egocentric strategies to perform spatial memory tasks. In summary, these results (obtained using two anxiety and seven memory tests), provide solid evidence of memory deficits in GAERS rats, which do not depend on an anxiety or neophobic phenotype. Furthermore, these results stress the need of using outbred and inbred control rats when assessing comorbid behaviour in ASs models.