As online information accumulates at an unprecedented rate, it is becoming increasingly important and difficult to navigate the web efficiently. To create an easily navigable cyberspace for individuals across different age groups, genders, and other characteristics, we first need to understand how they navigate the web differently. Previous studies have revealed individual differences in spatial navigation, yet very little is known about their differences in knowledge space navigation. To close this gap, we conducted an online experiment where participants played a navigation game on Wikipedia and filled in questionnaires about their personal information. Our analysis shows that participants' navigation performance in the knowledge space declines with age and increases with foreign language skills. The difference between male and female performance is, however, not significant in our experiment. Participants' characteristics that predict success in finding routes to the target do not necessarily indicate their ability to find innovative routes.

翻译：随着在线信息以前所未有的速度积累，高效浏览网页变得日益重要且困难。为了为不同年龄群体、性别及其他特征的个体构建易于导航的网络空间，我们首先需要理解他们浏览网页方式的差异。已有研究揭示了空间导航中的个体差异，但关于知识空间导航中的个体差异知之甚少。为填补这一空白，我们开展了一项在线实验，参与者在维基百科上进行导航游戏，并填写个人背景问卷。分析表明，参与者在知识空间中的导航表现随年龄增长而下降，随外语技能提升而增强。然而，实验未发现性别间表现的显著差异。能预测参与者成功找到目标路径的个人特征，并不必然预示其发现创新路径的能力。