Why Feeling Capable Might Literally Help You Remember Better

We often think of confidence as a side dish—nice to have, but not essential. Especially when it comes to memory, it’s tempting to believe that raw ability is all that matters. But research is revealing that how capable we feel in the moment can shape how—and how well—we actually remember (Miller & Unsworth, 2025). Not just because we’re in a better mood, but because confidence seems to affect the very mechanics of learning and recall. The belief that “I can do this” changes what happens when we try.

Self-efficacy, or belief in our ability to perform a specific task, does more than boost morale. In memory tasks, especially those involving sequences, it can improve recall by increasing persistence and attentional consistency (Beaudoin & Desrichard, 2017; Miller & Unsworth, 2025). When someone believes they can succeed, they tend to try longer, focus harder, and search their memory more thoroughly (Beaudoin, 2018). This isn’t about blind optimism—it’s about the body and brain allocating effort because success feels within reach.

Confidence becomes a kind of fuel for cognitive follow-through.

What’s striking is how this belief doesn’t just make people feel more motivated—it changes their behavior. People with high task-specific self-efficacy tend to use more strategies and monitor their progress more effectively (Bouffard-Bouchard, 1990; Gaskill & Murphy, 2004). They’re more likely to engage metacognitively, adjusting their tactics when things aren’t working, instead of powering through blindly. They also stay more engaged when memory retrieval becomes difficult, treating that challenge as something workable rather than threatening (Frankenstein et al., 2022). In a sense, they’re less likely to give up on themselves mid-process, which matters more than we often realize.

But confidence isn’t a universal fix or magic trick—it’s highly context-sensitive. Self-efficacy has the most impact when it’s grounded in reality, matched to the task at hand, and reinforced by feedback (Miola et al., 2021; Horcajo et al., 2022). Positive feedback can bolster performance by affirming competence, while negative or ambiguous feedback can undercut memory by destabilizing belief. The benefits are also amplified when individuals feel certain about their beliefs—not just hoping they can do something, but truly believing it (Horcajo et al., 2022). In these cases, self-efficacy enhances performance not by bypassing difficulty, but by helping people stay with it longer and more strategically.

Confidence’s impact on memory is also partly indirect. Some of its benefits emerge through other cognitive variables—like attention span, working memory capacity, and motivation (Miller & Unsworth, 2025). In that sense, belief doesn’t work in isolation. It opens the door, but it still needs strong systems to walk through it. That said, when self-efficacy is present, those systems tend to perform better—more stability, more follow-through, more learning that actually sticks.

This has implications beyond the lab or classroom. In aging adults, bolstering memory self-efficacy has been shown to support better learning outcomes, particularly in cognitively demanding tasks where confidence may be lower (Beaudoin & Desrichard, 2017). In trauma recovery, even subtle shifts in perceived competence—believing one can handle remembering difficult experiences—may influence not only what gets recalled but how those memories are organized and integrated (Beaudoin, 2018). For educators, coaches, and clinicians, this research suggests that how we affirm or undermine someone’s belief in their capacity can change what they’re actually able to access, retain, and apply.

If you’ve ever blanked on something you knew, it might not have been a failure of intelligence. It could have been a momentary fracture in self-trust, a subtle nervous system flicker saying, “I can’t find it,” before the brain even tried. Sometimes remembering doesn’t just depend on what we’ve learned—it hinges on whether we feel safe enough, stable enough, or supported enough to believe we can retrieve it. And maybe that’s the gentler question we should ask when memory falters—not “What’s wrong with me?” but “Was I allowed to believe I could know it?”

References

Beaudoin, M. (2018). Memory performance in older adults: Experimental evidence for the indirect effect of memory self-efficacy on processing efficiency through worry. Motivation and Emotion, 42, 885–895. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-018-9703-5

Beaudoin, M., & Desrichard, O. (2011). Are memory self-efficacy and memory performance related? A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 137(2), 211–241. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022106

Beaudoin, M., & Desrichard, O. (2017). Memory self-efficacy and memory performance in older adults: The mediating role of task persistence. Swiss Journal of Psychology, 76, 23–33. https://doi.org/10.1024/1421-0185/a000188

Bouffard-Bouchard, T. (1990). Influence of self-efficacy on performance in a cognitive task. Journal of Social Psychology, 130(3), 353–363. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1990.9924591

Frankenstein, A., Udeogu, O., McCurdy, M., Sklenar, A., & Leshikar, E. (2022). Exploring the relationship between retrieval practice, self-efficacy, and memory. Memory & Cognition, 50, 1299–1318. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-022-01324-z

Gaskill, P., & Murphy, P. (2004). Effects of a memory strategy on second-graders’ performance and self-efficacy. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 29, 27–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0361-476x(03)00008-0

Horcajo, J., Santos, D., & Higuero, G. (2022). The effects of self-efficacy on physical and cognitive performance: An analysis of meta-certainty. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 58, 102063. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2021.102063

Miola, L., Muffato, V., Meneghetti, C., & Pazzaglia, F. (2021). Spatial learning in a virtual environment: The role of self-efficacy feedback and individual visuospatial factors. Brain Sciences, 11(9), 1185. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11091185

Miller, A., & Unsworth, N. (2025). Individual differences in learning and memory abilities: The influence of self-efficacy. Memory & Cognition. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-025-01693-1

Miller, A., & Unsworth, N. (2025). Variation in the intensity and consistency of attention during learning: The role of conative factors. Journal of Memory and Language, 127, 104601. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2024.104601