Previous research has shown that when measuring visual working memory (VWM) using the continuous color-report task (CCRT), emotions occur incidentally, i.e. the task itself triggers positive and negative emotions in participants (Laybourn et al., 2021). These emotions are linked to VWM performance, suggesting that they are potential confounding variables. The aims of the following two studies were (1) to further explore what participants feel and think during the CCRT in order to identify other factors, which may be tied to VWM performance, and (2) to ascertain whether these findings translate to different VWM capacity measures, such as the change detection task (CDT). In two studies (N = 19, respectively), participants were required to think aloud, i.e. verbalize any thoughts and feelings they were having while completing a VWM task (study 1: CCRT; study 2: CDT). Qualitative content analysis revealed that participants in both studies experienced different task-related emotions, such as achievement and epistemic emotions, and that these emotions were triggered by different aspects of the task (e.g. fixation cross) as well as by personal factors (e.g. achievement goals). Further, participants hinted towards using different strategies (e.g. grouping) in order to enhance their performance on the task. Additionally, some participants reported a certain degree of mind-wandering during the task. Our findings provide novel insights into VWM research purely from the participants’ perspective and suggest that there are many factors which need to be further investigated as potential confounding variables when measuring VWM using different VWM measurement paradigms.