It's hard to imagine any mitzvah not being rewarded; after all, it's still a mitzvah! The source that you've quoted probably just means that his learning will not 'bear fruit' in that his learning won't be useful to him later when he needs to know what to do, and he won't be able to develop his Torah knowledge properly either. After all, the Gemara also says (Avodah Zarah 19a): אמר רבא לעולם ליגריס איניש ואף על גב דמשכח - a person should always learn even if he will forget. There are even some opinions that state (rather remarkably, I think) that one should even make birkas haTorah on something that he doesn't understand at all (Maharal in Gevuros Hashem ch. 62), which indicates that the mitzvah of learning Torah is not dependent on knowing what one has learned.
Perhaps a more explicit source is the Mishnah in Avos 5:13, "ממהר לשמוע וממהר לאבד יצא שכרו בהפסדו", implying that one quickly forgets his learning 'has lost his reward'. However, Rabbeinu Yonah writes on that Mishnah:
ההפסד מרובה אחר ששוכח תלמודו, ומה תועלת לענין הידיעה כי מהרה מבין
הדברים, כי הכל ישכח מלבו. ועם כל זה לא ירפה ידיו מללמוד ששכר יש לו
מחמת הטורח, כי עושה מלאכת ה' כל היום
...he does receive reward for his toil, for he's busy with the work of God
Even if a person forgets due to negligence, it's probable that he still wouldn't lose the reward for doing the mitzvah in the first place. The Mishnah discussing forgetting one's learning (Avos 3:8 and Menachos 99b) writes that only if one 'actively removes them from his memory' does he violate the prohibition of פן תשכח את הדברים, and while I'm not really sure what that means, I doubt it refers to mere negligence (though the first half of that Misnah might indicate otherwise, so מהא ליכא למשמע מינה).
However, there is a source to the contrary: Rashi to Brachos 6b. He writes
עיקר קבול שכר הבריות הרצים לשמוע דרשה מפי חכם היא שכר המרוצה שהרי רובם אינם מבינים להעמיד גרסא ולומר שמועה מפי רבן לאחר זמן שיקבלו שכר למוד
The primary reward received by those who run to hear the hear a [Torah] lecture from the scholar is the reward that they receive for running there, because most of them do not understand [the lecture well enough] to recall it and say what they heard from the teacher after some time, that they would receive reward for learning
Rashi indicates that the only way to receive reward for learning Torah is if one remembers it well enough to have total recall after time has passed. However, the Maharsha (there) argues on Rashi's understanding of this Gemara