Stimulated by a large number of different theories on human cognition, suggesting that individuals have different habitual approaches in retrieving, recalling, processing and storing verbal and graphical information, this paper investigates the effect of such processes with regard to user performance and preference toward two variations of knowledge-based authentication mechanisms. In particular, a text-based password authentication mechanism and a recognition-based graphical authentication mechanism were deployed in the frame of an ecological valid user study, to investigate the effect of specific cognitive factors of users toward efficiency, effectiveness and preference of authentication tasks. A total of 145 users participated during a five-month period between February and June 2012. This recent study provides interesting insights for the design and deployment of adaptive authentication mechanisms based on cognitive factors of users. The results and implications of this paper are valuable in understanding and modeling user interactions with regard to authentication mechanisms.