Milgram's experiment in the knowledge space: individual navigation strategies

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Science
• Information Science
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• The digital age presents information overload, challenging effective navigation.
• While navigation patterns in geographic and social spaces are known, knowledge space navigation strategies remain understudied.
• Understanding individual differences in knowledge navigation is crucial for information access.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate individual differences in knowledge navigation strategies.
• To identify distinct patterns of navigating information within the knowledge space.
• To explore the relationship between social navigation tendencies and knowledge navigation strategies.

Main Methods:

• An online experiment involving a Wikipedia navigation game.
• Utilized the hierarchical structure of English Wikipedia and graph embedding techniques.
• Administered questionnaires on personal information to participants.

Main Results:

• Identified two primary knowledge navigation strategies: proximity-driven and hub-driven.
• Found significant individual differences in strategy selection.
• Older, white, and female participants favored proximity-driven strategies.
• Younger participants predominantly employed hub-driven strategies.

Conclusions:

• Knowledge navigation strategies exhibit significant individual variation.
• Demographic factors (age, race, gender) correlate with specific navigation strategies.
• Social navigation tendencies can be conceptualized as choices between hub-driven and proximity-driven knowledge navigation strategies.