Gaze guidance for improved password recollection

Most computer systems require user authentication, which has led to an increase in the number of passwords one has to remember. In this paper we explore if spatial visual cues can be used to improve password recollection. Specifically, we consider if associating each character in a password to user-defined spatial regions in an image facilitates better recollection. We conduct a user study where participants were asked to recall randomly generated numeric passwords under the following conditions: no image association (No-Image), image association (Image-Only), image association combined with overt visual cues (Overt-Guidance), and image association combined with subtle visual cues (Subtle-Guidance). We measured the accuracy of password recollection and response time as well as average dwell-time at target locations for the gaze guided conditions. Subjects performed significantly better on password recollection when they were actively guided to regions in the associated image using overt visual cues. Accuracy of password recollection using subtle cues was also higher than the No-Image and Image-Only conditions, but the effect was not significant. No significant difference was observed in the average dwell-times between the overt and subtle guidance approaches.