Between a prototypical perspective and the conceptual space of LOVE in password creation

Abstract: Aided by the instruments of prototype theory, the current study sets out to determine whether in password creation there is a common underlying cognitive pattern in the categorization of the elusive natural language concept of LOVE. Our framework combines free listing, a method providing critical information about the words that are more generally associated with a concept, and analysis of prototype rating surveys. The results obtained are compared to a dataset of randomly selected passwords to determine the semantic associations of the concept of LOVE and clarify the semantic processes involved in the structure of passwords. Results suggest that, in categorizing LOVE, password users have compatible representations that afford a meeting of minds. We conclude that LOVE acts as a fixpoint in the mental processing of this CONCEPTUAL SPACE and that it takes, with password users, idealized forms of representations rather than individual experience-based representations, as might be expected. Our investigation method has facilitated the collection of data on how LOVE prototypes specify more exhaustively the mode of synthesis and the cognitive mapping under which these may occur.