Cognitive task performance is a dynamic process that evolves over time,
starting from the first encounters with a task. An important aspect of
these task dynamics is the employment of strategies to support
successful performance and task acquisition. Focusing on episodic memory
performance, we: (1) tested two hypotheses on the effects of novelty
and task difficulty on strategy use; (2) replicated our previous results
regarding strategy use in a novel memory task; and (3) evaluated
whether repeated open-ended strategy queries affect task performance
and/or strategy use. The present pre-registered online study comprised
161 adult participants who were recruited through the Prolific
crowdsourcing platform. We employed two separate 5-block list learning
tasks, one with 10 pseudowords and the other with 18 common nouns, and
collected recall performance and strategy reports for each block. Using
Bayesian linear mixed effects models, the present findings (1) provide
some support for the hypothesis that task-initial strategy development
is not triggered only by task novelty, but can appear also in a
familiar, moderately demanding task; (2) replicate earlier findings from
an adaptive working memory task indicating strategy use from the
beginning of a task, associations between strategy use and objective
task performance, and only modest agreement between open-ended vs.
list-based strategy reports; and (3) indicate that repeated open-ended
strategy reports do not affect objective recall. We conclude that
strategy use is an important aspect of memory performance right from the
start of a task, and it undergoes development at the initial stages
depending on task characteristics. In a larger perspective, the present
results concur with the views of skill learning and adaptivity in
cognitive task performance.