Capacitance-voltage measurements on self-assembled quantum dot layers exposed to strong electric fields and with large distances to the reservoirs show a marked hysteretic behavior. It is shown that at low temperatures this hysteresis can be explained quantitatively in terms of state-dependent capture and emission rates that are obtained by a rate equation model, applied to the measured capacitance transients. The occupation dynamics and the steady-state configuration can be extracted from these data via a Markov chain model.