Regulating Memory Use: Individual Differences in Working Memory Capacity in Natural Tasks

Working memory (WM) capacity predicts a wide range of cognitive abilities, yet little is known about how individuals with different WM capacities regulate memory use during natural tasks in which memory use is voluntarily determined. To address this question, we conducted two experiments (N = 120) in which participants completed a copying task and a change-detection task. Experiment 1 manipulated sampling cost to increase reliance on internal memory storage, whereas Experiment 2 manipulated time pressure to increase demands for maintaining consistent memory use. Increasing sampling cost led participants to use more memory but did not make individual differences in WM capacity more apparent in mean memory usage. In contrast, time pressure revealed a reliable association between WM capacity and the consistency of memory usage across sampling episodes. Higher-capacity individuals exhibited more consistent memory use. These findings suggest that WM capacity shapes voluntary memory use not simply by increasing how much information people remember, but by influencing how consistently they regulate memory use under different task demands.