Game lets users unknowingly remember passwords

Scientists have developed a method to ‘unknowingly’ teach users a password. The users can enter the password without knowing it themselves. This uses implicit memory.

Researchers from Stanford University in California to have developed a game where users have to ‘rescue’ falling objects by pressing a button. There are six different locations where an object can fall, which correspond to six buttons that the user can press. A participant has to play for about 30 to 45 minutes, with the falling objects falling seemingly randomly.

However, the scientists have secretly built in a self-repeating pattern of thirty falling objects. This pattern was repeated about 100 times during gameplay, causing users to learn it unconsciously. In a study in which gaming sessions were repeated several times, it was found that participants performed better and better with the pattern of 30 falling objects.

According to the researchers, playing the game can be used as the basis for a security mechanism. Several gaming sessions allow individual users to unknowingly learn a unique 30 ‘digit’ password with six possibilities per digit. By playing the game they can prove that they know the password unconsciously, without being able to tell it consciously. This should make it impossible to reveal a password, while users can enter it.

Malicious persons can try to recover the password by having users play a similar game, but this would not be accurate, according to the researchers. The scientists do claim that there are still a number of snags to their method. For example, long gaming sessions are required to learn and enter the password. Hackers can also penetrate the original game or authentication system in order to be able to read the passwords. It is also likely necessary to maintain the unconscious password, as it is possible for users to ‘forget’ the pattern. It is therefore still unclear whether the system can be used commercially.

Learning a password in this way uses the non-declarative, or implicit, memory. This is where things are stored that have been learned without the need for consciousness. An example is learning to ride a bicycle, where repeated practice leads to better performance. The implicit memory is also described as ‘muscle memory’ and plays a role in gaming, for example, where gamers become better at using a keyboard or controller, for example.