In strongly coupled plasmas the diffusion of the particles takes place on a timescale that is long compared to the timescale of oscillations of the particles in the local minima of the potential landscape. The ensuing quasi‐stability of the local particle configurations can be quantified by monitoring the changes of the immediate surroundings, i.e. the ”cages”, of the particles. Studies of cage correlations are presented here for 2‐dimensional Yukawa systems that model dusty plasmas by including the friction exerted on the dust particles by the embedding gaseous environment. We find that the increasing friction enhances the caging time by randomizing the directed motion of the particles. (© 2016 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)