The cognitive processes of being lost. Although a moderate amount of work has investigated how humans navigate, either on their own or with automobile aids, less work has investigated what happens when we get lost. Being lost however, is not just the opposite of knowing one's position. This distinction is analyzed in several ways. Second, there are concomitant human behaviors attached to each condition of being lost.
People act differently according to the severity of their lostness.
The paper is partly based on information obtained from expert and novice wayfinders, and their strategies for dealing with and preventing being lost. In this instance, the information about the terrain that an individual is perceiving through the senses does not match the information held in memory or on a map. The severity of this error is compounded by the fact that often the individual does not realize this, and will attempt to brush aside discrepancies in an effort to make the information fit. One of our first tasks therefore is to enable individuals to realize the error. Only after this can the error be rectified.