A comparative evaluation of computer access controls
Timothy B. Pence · Calhoun: The Naval Postgraduate School Institutional Archive (Naval Postgraduate School) · 1992
This thesis reports the results of a study which tested participants' abilities to recall five different types of computer passwords. Each participant was assigned in a randomized procedure to one of six response intervals. Recall testing of computer-generated passwords, user-created passwords, passphrases, associative passwords and cognitive passwords was conducted using a computer program which simulated log-on procedures. This study indicates the relative merits of these five password types are more difficult to distinguish when data are collected in the realist setting of a log-on simulation instead of via paper surveys, as was done in previous research.