The Metacognitive Optimization of Offloading Task (MOOT): Both higher costs to offload and the accuracy of memory predict goodness of offloading performance.

Abstract

We developed a Metacognitive Offloading Optimization Task (MOOT) whereby participants were instructed to score as many points as possible by accessing words from a presented list either by remembering them (worth 10 points each) or by offloading them (worth less than 10 points each). Results indicated that participants were sensitive to the value of the offloaded items such that when offloaded items carried a high value (e.g., 8 points each), participants' scores were lower than if they had chosen to offload all items. Conversely, when offloaded items had a low value (e.g., 2 points each), participants' scores exceeded what they would have achieved had they offloaded all items. In Experiments 2 and 3, we investigated offloading optimality. Specifically, because each individual's maximum possible score depended on how much they could remember, each participant's memory ability was assessed in a pretest. The maximum score obtainable resulted from a strategy in which the participant opts to recall every item that they will be able to remember (obtaining 10 points for each) and offloads all other items (obtaining a value greater than 0 points for each), leaving no items unrecalled and not offloaded. To implement this strategy, the participant needs to have and use metaknowledge of exactly which items they will be able to recall. In each experiment, the MOOT scores-the ratio of participants' observed score to their maximum possible score-were closer to optimal for participants with better memory ability. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).