load with output memory problems

[Jim Hokanson]

I am curious if anyone knows the difference as to what happens "under the hood" so to speak when loading variables with and without an output using the load command. I would think these two would be nearly identical minus the different output formats (structure vs variable names). I am however able to load a rather large file using the output format, and I am not when there is no output. Any ideas what is happening? Is there some temporary variable that is created that is otherwise avoided by a direct assignment to a variable in the given workspace? Thanks.

h = load('file.mat') => works
load('file.mat') => doesn't work => error, out of memory