Back when I was a teenager and even before that I remember that at any given time I had probably a dozen or so phone numbers memorized. I never have to look up the number for my friends, or my parents work numbers. However, after owning a cell phone for the last 10 years I realized that I no longer have the ability to memorize any phone number after dialing it once. In fact, The only numbers I have memorized are my work numbers, and my wife's cell phone number. Even though I have called it countless times, I couldn't begin to tell you what my wife's work phone number is. Likewise, I don't have one single friend that I have memorized his or her phone number. Recently I found myself asking why this is. The obvious answer is as I get older and as technology improved, I have had no real reason to remember any phone numbers.
The downfall of my phone number memorization came with my first pager. Yes, before cell phones were ubiquitous people had one-way devices that could only display a phone number. Since you could save a limited number of these messages in your pager I started not having to worry about memorizing all phone numbers. Of course, since I had still had to physically dial the number on a pay-phone or my home phone some numbers still stuck. Now, I only physically dial numbers that aren't already in my phone book. If you meet someone new at a networking event or run in to an old friend you no longer need their business cards you simply dial their number once, save them as a contact, and you can call them immediately so they can save your number after it has appeared in their call log. Even easier still is if you both have Bluetooth on your phones you can just beam your contact information, never once inputing or even speaking the number.
While I was lamenting the fact that I probably couldn't remember a phone number outside of the three I mentioned earlier if my life depending on it, I realized that the part of our memory that many of us used to use to store phone numbers is probably being used to store user names and passwords. Whether it be at you job, your computer, or a website, we all have several user names and passwords floating around in our head that somehow we are able to easily access. As an example, I have had to use 5 different user names today and 4 different passwords at work. Since applications I use have several different security protocols for minimum password length, maximum password length, and type of allowed characters I can't use one global password. Additionally, some of my passwords expire after 30 days, some every 80, some 90, and some never. To keep all these straight I pretty much just have to reset my passwords every 30 days, and use a password manager application to automatically fill in forms in select applications. Of course this only helps me at work. At home, I can use FireFox to remember most of my passwords and user names, but every once in a while there are sites where that doesn't work. And just like at work, different sites may have different requirements for the strength of your password, and may have limits on the number of characters a user name may have.
After pondering all this I started to wonder if the way a lot of used to memorize phone numbers ended up being a training ground for our mind to start memorizing user names and passwords. I started thinking about how I remembered phone numbers and whether I was remembering the number itself, or I was just remembering the pattern on how to dial the number. Keep in mind, I'm not a scientist and I am simply making observations. I am not attempting to create a designed study or anything. As I was trying to go to sleep one night I tried to put myself back where I was about 15 years ago when remembering numbers was a breeze and I tried to recreate how I would remember these numbers. One in particular that I remembered was not the number itself, but the pattern on how it was dialed. From that I realized that the last four numbers were 2879. Those numbers form an upside down "T". After remember the last four digits I am pretty sure I know what the first 3 are, but I won't be printing those to protect the current owner of that number. But based on how I was able to reach back and pull out that number again it seemed like not only was I remembering how I physically dialed the number, but partly the number itself.
I decided to Wiki both Muscle Memory and Rote Memory. According to that information typing uses muscle memory and more specially fine motor skills as opposed to gross motor skills. From that one can assume that the better developed your fine motor typing skills are, the more likely you are to be able to type on a QWERTY keyboard without looking at the keys. It stands to reason then that passwords and dialing a memorized phone number, in part, use muscle memory.
Rote memory, on the other hand, seems to be a little trickier. First, rote memory isn't an accurate term as it is really a memorization technique. As such it is neart impossible to prove definitively someone is or isn't the technique. One of the keys aspects of rote learning is that it allows us to memorize a lot of information in a short period of time. When using this technique you are more concerned about knowing the answer than how you got there. As an example, if you are learning your multiplication tables it is only important to know that 5x3=15 and 2x6=12. You do not need to understand that 5x3=5+5+5. Learning a phone number seems to work the same way. The average person does not know, nor do they need to know how a phone call works or what an NPA-NXX (area code and local exchange) is and how they are coded. We simply need to remember that John Doe =555-1212. I feel it works the same with user names and passwords. You remember that for your computer your login is Almighty and password is god. However, if you are like me, you probably remember it more like Almighty
When you bring the two types of memory together I think increase your retention and recall. When you are typing a password your fingers seem to move with very little effort. You don't have to consciously think P-A-S-S-W-O-R-D. Instead, depending on how fast and accurate you type it is likely that your fingers are playing catch-up with your brain. When you type a password you aren't likely typing a full sentence though. It is more likely that it is a word about 8 characters in length. The difference between typing a password and sentence is that I here myself say the password in my head and it is much more forced than natural internal monologue. Your fingers typing the password are obviously where the fine motor skills come in to play, and I think saying the password in your head as type helps create a rote memory. So much so that it gets to point, as was with phone numbers, that you can focus on an entirely different task than dialing a phone number or entering a password.
Like I said, all this is purely speculative and is not really based on any scientific fact. It was something that was on my mind and I thought I would share.