New! Inspecting the external world: Memory capacity, but not memory self-efficacy, predicts offloading in working memory

Böing, S., Brink, A. F. T., Ruis, C., Schielen, Z. A., Van Den Berg, E., Biesbroek, J. M., Nijboer, T. C. W., & Van Der Stigchel, S. (2025). Inspecting the external world: Memory capacity, but not memory self-efficacy, predicts offloading in working memory. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/13803395.2024.2447263

Individuals with memory impairments may need to rely often on the external world (i.e. offloading). By memorizing only a fraction of the items at hand, and repeatedly looking back to the
remainder of items (i.e. inspecting), they can avoid frailty or effortful memory use. However,
individuals with subjective concerns may also prefer to rely on the external world even though
their capacity is intact. Crucially, capacity assessment fails to recognize offloading strategies, while
inspection assessment may reveal how people choose to deploy memory in everyday life. To
disentangle the relative contributions of memory capacity and memory self-efficacy to offloading
behavior, we recruited 29 individuals who were referred to a memory clinic and 38 age-matched
individuals. We assessed memory capacity using neuropsychological measures, and memory selfefficacy using questionnaires. Inspection behavior was assessed in a copy task that allowed
participants to store information to their preferred load or to rely on the external world. Referred
individuals had lower capacity scores and lower memory self-efficacy. They inspected as often as
controls, but used longer inspections and performed worse. Across all subjects, memory capacity –
but not memory self-efficacy – explained inspection frequency and duration, with higher capacity
associated with fewer and shorter inspections. Capacity measures thus translate to how people
choose to deploy their memory in tasks that do not force full capacity use. However, people
generally avoided remembering more than two items per inspection, and thus avoided using their
full capacity. Inspection behavior was not further explained by memory self-efficacy, suggesting
that inspections are not a sensitive measure of constraints experienced in everyday life. Although
we provide support for the predictive value of capacity tasks in tasks with more degrees of
freedom, capacity tasks overlook offloading behavior that individuals may employ to avoid using
their full memory capacity in everyday life.