Recall Accuracy of Self-generated Passwords with and without Generation Criteria Reminders
Primary Investigator:
Robert Proctor
Qi Zhong, Huangyi Ge, Jeremiah Blocki, Ninghui Li, Robert W. Proctor
Abstract
The present study investigated whether presentation of the password generation criteria at the time of recall facilitates password recall. Participants were asked to generate a password based on four criteria and recall the password two weeks later. Half of the participants were reminded of the generation criteria during the recall and half were not. No significant differences were found between the two groups for correct recall rates, number of attempts to achieve correct recall, and percentage of similar incorrectly recalled passwords. However, presentation of the criteria did cause participants to consider the criteria more closely, as indicated by the incorrect passwords supplied by each group.