Psychology of Lost Frr.,nt: K.

A Hill

(1998). Lost Person Bchavior. Ottawa, Catruda: National SAR Secretariat

Kenneth

Hill

The Psychology of Lost

Editor's Introduction. Tltis introductory chapter, prepared specifically for this book, drsctrsses the r-oncept of being lost from a ps.yr:hological point of view. Research on the behavior of losl pr:t'sons is described, including their enrotiortal reactions and thc various ntethods lhey enploy in their elfot'ts to becone "founcl. " ln allthe lore of w'oods and wildenress. no story is quite so dramatic

as that of the lost person.

Man's struggle with a hostile etrvit'otrtlent, the threat of death fiom exposure or staruation, the separation frorn loved ones: these and other themes are all embodied in the tale of the lost prospector. the downed pilot, or the child who has strayed from camp. Indeed. the literature of the u,orld abourrds with fictional characters who lose their w,ay in lbrest. desert, cave. or sea. isolated

fiotn hutnanity. rvandering blindll' toward tragedy or adventure, frorn the rnyths of Homer and the lairy tales of Hans Christian Anderson. to the novels of Defoe and Twain. Every traveler kpows thern.

to the irnagination of novelists. authors of survival books. and other story-spiltrrers, person's the lost behavior is a topic that has acquired the status of a rnythology, exchanged over campfires from one generatiott to the rtext in hLrshecl and somber tones. Thus. lbr exarnple, all of SLrb.ject

Lrs

havc hcard tlrat the lost person. if he w'anders far enorrgh, rvill eventually retunt to the place where he stafied a popLtlar belief l'or rvhich there is no documented evidencc. AlthoLrgh search organizers

-

are often advised to put thetnselves "into the lost subject's slloes," the truth is that little is knor.vn

aboutthe psychologl,of being lost. If search is indeed aclassic mystery. ratlrerthan aplodding exercise in blanket coverage, then it's necessary to know the victim's motivations and behaviors in orderto solve it. In this chapter we shal I exalr.rine the lost person lrom the perspective of research.

including studies on how persons becorne lost or disoriented, and w,hat they do next.

What Is a ttl-ost" Person? What exactly do lve rnean when we say a person is 1osfl Let's approach this question by corrsidering sorxe exalnples of people who are freqLrently the subjects of land search.

'

A small child wanders awa)/ fi'om his rural home into a large. forested area.

Psychology of

.

Losl

2

A hiker underestimates the time it will take hirn to get to the trail head and is forced to strike carnp along the r.vay.

. An elderly

Alzheinter's patient strolls into the woods near her residential center. hal ing rro idea that she's in danger.

. A hunter gets "turned around" aud walks 20 miles

on a woods road going the w,rong

direction.

. A lone skier on a remote hill breaks his leg in a fall and cannot rnove. . A depressed wornan sits down on a log and takes a handfulof barbitLrrates,

determined to

commit suicide. Clearly. not all of these individuals could be classified as "lost" in the sense that lve nonnally runderstand that word in search artd rescue, irnplicitly using such dictionary deflnitions as "Unable to find the way" (Webster's Dictionary). In these cases. fie lost person is unable to identify or orient his presenl location with respect to known locations, and lns no effectivt: means or nethocl for reorienting hinself. Note that this is a two-part definition, involving both a conl'usion with respect to geographical position as well as an inabiliq, to reacquire one's orientation. Consequently, it is possible (and indeed common) for sorneone to have little accurate knor.vledge of one's location and strll not be "lost". For example, in the hot pursuit of ganre, hunters often lose their orientation, but most have sotne soft of "plan" for finding their way out of the woods, such as follou,ing a predetenrined cornpass bearing to a highway. Sirnilarly, a young child is almost always "disoriented" witlr respect to the distance and direction of his home, once he's rnore than a block or trvo oLttside of his neighborhood; fbftunately, there's usually an adult or older child around to reestablish his orientation for hirn. In these exanrples. it's only when the child strays alone into an unfarriliar environment, or the lrunter forgets his conrpass, that we rnight reasonably define the person as lost.

Hou'ever, there are other incidents where the person rnay know where he is, br.rt tbr sorne reason is unable to retLrrn to safety. or to sorne locatiorr rvhere others expect hirn to be. Cerlainly. the trverdue hiker is the most prevalent exanrple of this sorl olperson, who rnight better be described as

"tnissittg" rathcr than lost per se. The injured clirnber and skier are also coumon exarnples. othet'cases, the rnissing person coLrld perhaps be described as "lost" in a rnore abstract or

lrr

psychological serrse. such as the walkaway Alzheinrer's patient or tlre severely depressed individLral who doesn't respond to searchers'calls. In the case of the Alzheimer's patient who has walked ar,vay fi'om an institution. the victim may be cornpletely rmaware of his disorienlation (indeed. he rna1, believe he's in some "familiar" location that hasn't actually existed for many years). The severely depressed or despondent individual. however, may have acute awareness of his location and reject

any attempt bv rvell-meaning searchers to locate and rescue hirn. For these exan.rples, perhaps a

slightly different dictionary usage of "lost" may be nrore appropriate. suclr as "Unable to function, act. or make progress: helpless" (American Heritage Dictionary). Unless otherwise specified. the word losr in this chapter

will

refer to the more narrow sense

of

Psychology of Lost being spatially disoriented, with no effective means of reorientation.

HOW DO PEOPLE STAY "FOUND"? Becoming lost, as has been stated several tirnes, is the result of losing one's spatial orientatiou. cornbined with the absence of an effective rrethod of reorientation. ln this section I'llelaborate on this tr.vo-part definition. I'll discuss ways that people stay oriented when moving around in the environment. how they find their way from one location to another, and how they reorient themselves once they get "turned around."

On Knowing Where You Are l-et's begin by discussing several ways that we can be spatially oriented. Firstly, and nrost

sirnply. we can be in a familiar location srlch as our hotre, where objects around us are fhrniliar, meaning rve have sonre personal experience or mernory of interacting with them. We know the ror-rtes (paths and roads) to other

routes will take

farniliar locations, and we know what approximate direction these

us should we decide to travel them. More generally. we have sorne understanding

of

the relative position of this farniliar place to other locations u,e know and, indeed, to many other places in the world.

As we rnove around in the environr-nent, particularly places that are not so farniliar to us, we are rarely able to maintain this degree of orientation. We may find ourselves in new settings and be forced to rely on u,ayfinding cLres, such as road signs or trail markings, to f-ind our way back to known locations. Much of the time, being spatially orierrted r.neans merely that we know the right route to travel in order to get home. such as the correct sequeuce oftunrs on city streets. In this case, "knowing where you are" actually means "kuowing tlte way," rather than being able to

pinpoint your location ou a map. It rarely occurs to us on such occasions that lve lack "real" spatial oricrrtatiorr. such as knorvingthe direction hotneorthe layoutofthc land. Rather. we rnay

havethe illusionofbeingoriented.suchas(incorrectly)assunringthathonreis"that"direction merely because the road seenrs to take us that way (the road may have a gradual bend that eventually points it to sorne entirely different direction).

It is being sLrggested. therefore. that rnost people most of the time are rnuch less oriented than they realize. Fortunately, this lact rarely becomes apparent to us, unless we tnake a wrong turn and have to regain our bearings. Even then, in most environments, there are usually sufficient wal,finding cues

-

or people to provide directions

-

to get us back on oLlr way. Being oriented.

then, lies as rnuch in our confldence of gettir.rg "unturned aroLurd," should the need arise, as in being able to determine the correct route. Thus, "knowing w'here you are" is a psychological state that may include cerlain perceptual experiences (recognizing scenes or landmarks). belreft (often en'oneous but Lrnchal lenged) concerning the direction and distance of known locations, knowledge

of lrow to navigate to another location. and feelings of security and

safety-

with respect to staf ing on

Psychology of Lost route or being able to recover the route,

if

necessary.

The Sense of Direction Up until about 50 years ago. many scientists believed that people have a separate sensory mechanism for determiniug magnetic north. While the specifics of this "sixth sense" could not be described. it was considered to be very subtle and relatively undeveloped in most people, especially

"civilized" people living in cities where such a sense is rarely needed. Consequently, it was believed that the sense of direction would be evidenced mainly in people from so-called "prirnitive" cultures in which wayfinding skills are especially critical. Various stLrclies on rron-Western societies indicate that people of many olthese cultures 'l'his appcar to have unusually good knowledge of direction. as well as other wa,vfinding skills. appears to be especially trLre for those societies in which extensive travel is critical to survival. such as for hunting or ocean navigation. For example, the Australian aborigine is often mentioned in this regard, as r.r,ell as the Puluwat Islanders of the South Pacific, ufto navigate their canoes rnany hundreds of miles to tiny islands through sheer dead reckoning. without benefit of compass or other technology (Cladwin. 1970). The "sense of direction" would seem to be natural to people of many non-industrialized cultures, and it's interesting to note that the Balinese consider "not knorving which u,ay is nofth'' as a symptorn of insanity (Geerlz, 1912). However, closer examination of the wayfinders of these third-world cultures indicates that sr-rch directional "instincts" are the product of extensive training that typically begins in early rather than a natural instinct even the most childhood. Being the result of acquired expetise experienced navigators of these societies are sub-iect to error. One such repoft. tbr exarnple. is that African buslrmen, who are nonnally experl wayfinders, will often becorne lost when a heavy rnist sets in (Howard & Templeton. 1979). Anotlrer obseruation is that Arabs traveling in the Sahara deseft, vvhere wayfinding cues are scarce. will travel single file so that the persorr in the back cau lrotice rvhen the leader deviatcs fiorn a straight line. Indeed, thc Pr-rluwats. considered to be arnong the world's most able wayfinders, get "turned aronnd" occasionally and may be forced to spend considerable tirne getting back on course. These obsenvations cast serious doubt on the presence of a "rnagnetic sense of direction." even among non-westenr cultures where navigation is a lnatter of sur.yival. Although the beliel'in such a sixth sense still persists in sorne quafiers. no controlled study to date has found reliable evidence of a human ability to directly sense the direction of magnetic norlh

direction. for that matter. This is not to suggest,

or any other

of course, that there are not vast differences arnong

people in their abilities to stay oriented with respect to direction. arrd indeed psychological research does supporl the existence of such diffbrences. However, it is clear from this research that having a

good "sense of direction" is based on the abiliq, to take advantage of environrnental cues. including f-eedback frorr one's own body movernents, rather than a nrysterious sixth sense. A study conducted nearly 70 years ago illLrstrates this point (DeSilva, l93l). The researcher

Psychology of

Lost

5

l'ound a l2-year-old boy who had a renrarkable abitiry" to point to the cardinal directions of nor1h. south. east, and rvest. However. DeSilva discovered that the boy woLrld quickly lose this ability

if

spun sufficiently while blindfolded. Clearly. the bo1,'5 skill r'vas not based on direct perception of maguetic nofth, because such a se nse should not require the ability to see. Rather. DeSilva learned that the boy, had been tar-rght fiom an early age to refbrence objects arrd locations in the environrrent

rvith respect to the cardinal directions. His rnother. who alle-qedly could not tell right frorn left. contpensated fbr her disability by refbrring to cardinal directions when communicating the location of ob.iects, such as. "Get rne the glass on the north side of the sink." Consequently the boy, according to DeSilva. learned to constantly keep track of geographical direction as a course of habit. lndeed. more recent researclr confirms that people r.vith a good sense of direction excel prirnarily in their tendcncl'to nrentally "r-rpdate" their geographical positiort as thev nrove arouud in the environrrent (Sholl. 1988). That is. rvhile walking dor.vn a trail, and particularll' r'n'hen tnakin-9 turns. such individuals appear to continuously monitor their direction of travel as they go, usirrg rnostly,visual cues but also kinesthetic feedback frorn their tnuscles. Moreover, unlike the renrarkable l2 yeal old studied by DeSilva. people r.r'ith a good sense of direction do not nornrall-v use the cardinal directions as reference poinls. bLrt rather sotre other. anchoring direction which is relevant to their activities at thc tirne. such as the direction from r'vltich they entered the r'voods.

Having a good sense of direction rnay be critical forthose outdoorenthusiasts lvho enter r-rnfarniliar territory,'. especially when out of sight of trails and other wayfinding aids. For example. deer hLrnting is one activitl'that puts the person at risk fbr getting disoriented, because it carr reqLrire at tirnes a concentration of nreutal resources on the acti'r'iry' to the detrinrent of monitoring direction.

While circling throLrgh the brush to get dor,vnrvind of a deer. the hunter may lose track of his anchoring direction or "safety bearing" back to camp or car. lt's no wonder that so many lost hunters are found traveling the opposite direction from where they entered the r.r,oods, deternrined thev'rc headed the riglrt ua1'out. On the other hand. in my vier.v. activities that do not nonralll detract liont nrental updating of direction. such as rccrcational hiking or natLlrc photography. put thc indiviclual at less risk 1'or becorning disoriented. because they focus the individual's attention upol cr.res rather than ar.vay ti'onr thcrn. I should add. however. that this h1'pothesis is

environrnental

suppofted only by the apparent percentages of difl-erent types of outdoor enthLrsiasts u'ho becorle the subjects of land searches.

Finding the Way There is. of course. n'ruch rnore to being "oriented" than knorving the direction honre. For exarnple. good rvayfirrders. by'definition. exccl in learning the corcct paths and routes through neu errvironments. They can also retrace their steps u'ith apparent ease. and they carr readil.v discover

sho(er and rrore elficiently traveled routes betvr,een locations they'uish to visit. ln this section ['ll discuss the corrponent skills that are involved in sLrch abilities. A cornrror.r occurrence dLrring search incidents is the appearance of a local resident at the

Psychology of Lost search cornrnand post. claimirrg he knows the area "like the back of his hand.'' FreqLrentl,v srlch individLrals prove to know rnuch less about the topography of the area than tltey clairn. Houever. it ma1 be a serious rnistake to write these local "expefts" off as knorving nothing at all about the area. hr fact. thel often do have knou'ledge that can be Lrsefirl. particularll'of trails. surue)'lines. allterrain vehicle roads. and other pathu,al,s not indicated orr anv rnaps (u'hich are oflen 20 years or more out of date). LJnflortunatell', the,v can rare[,v. specifl,the positions clf such pathu,ays in reference to a map. For exanrple. they nra1, look at the rnap tbr a tnornent, shake thcir heads in constelnation, therr say somethin-s like. "Well. I can't flnd it on this. but I can /akey'c'ru there." That is. the;- rnay, lack lr'hat psy'chologists call survey knowledge of an environrnent. u,hich is knowledge cr1'the respective locatious o1-lrails and landmarks

relafive fo ear-lt

oLher.

Srrrvc,v- knorvledgc is assurned to be conlained in r'vhat ps,vclrologists

(or rnental rnap) of a particular

en.u

calla "cogrritive nrap"

ironment. Apparently', the point of view of a cognitive map. like

any other rnap. is some distance above the terrain. looking dou,n upon it. We can gain sun'e.l'

knorvledge rnost drrectly by perusing real maps and other syrnbolic representations of an

environrrent. such as scale models of a town. There is some evidence that we lna),also ''constnrct'' rncntal maps of regions by traveling aror-tnd within therr- although for most people these nraps tend to be sorner,r,hat inaccurate and incornplete. As I indicated. the local resideuts rarel,v'have rnuch

roure /\X \ frorr their travels. l'hat is, they are farniliar rvith routes. trails- or pathuavs

surucy knor.r'ledge of the regions with ri.'hich they're f'amiliar. but they,often have excellent knowleclge obtained

corrnecting one location to another. ln particular. they knorv u'hat to expectto see as they traverse a

parlicular pathway and- rnore irnportantly, they knor.v u,hich direction to tunr rvhen a route branches or intersects r,r,ith another.'fhe point of vier',u olroute knor.vledge. therefore. is of the person rn()\ ing through the lvoods. rather than hovering sorne distance above thern. What the person "kuows" is sequence of stimuli that should be perceived along the route. in a serial lashion. rather than sonre ahstract "rnap" that can be perccivcd at onc glatrce

a

.

Cognitive maps oI'children Research supports the conclusion that nost chilclreu r-rnder the

difficulry constructir.rg Lrseful cognitivc maps of their environnrents (Piaget&lnhelder. I967).'l-hatis.whateverimageoftheirterrainthel,maybeabletocorrstructin their rnind rnav have little reserrblanceto the real rvorld. and rnay consequently'be useless for r.vay'finding purposcs. For example. lacking surve)' knoivledge of the la1,6s1 of the land. thel' rrzry be unable to stand at one farniliar location and point to another rvhich is not in view. Indeed. it appears that some childreu rnay no1 even understarrd that locations have a fixed, lirrear direction r,vith respcct to each other. For example. vr'hen asked to point to her home sonre distance awa)'. the child rna1, only be able to point to the start ofthe ranrbling path she uses to get there. despite repeated requests to point to her iouse. Around age eight (give or take a -"-ear), the child starts to r-rnderstand that the rvorld ther, rrove age of eight or nine rnay have

around in has a metric. tr.ro-dinrensional stnrctr.n'e thal renrains constant. One realizalion that now occurs to them is that the routes thel' use to travel betweerr locations is arbitrary: there are, indeed.

many paths to Rome. Frequentlv this insi-qht provides the seed fbr a nerv cLrriosity'aborrl thc'ir'

Psychology of

Lost

7

environments. pafticularly a fascinatiorr u,ith thc very concept of a shorl cuf. One intrepid scientist. for exarnple, who spent months following children around their sLrburban neighborlroods, becanre fascinated with the observation that they' would often go out of their way to take "shoft cuts" that were frequently longer and rnore hazardous than the original routes (Har1.1979).lt is no accident. therefore- that'uvhen children between the ages of approxirnately eight and tr,velve beconre lost.

frequently the result of an urtsuccessful shorl cLrt (Syrotuck. 1977). The role of "meta-knowledge" in wayfinding. An important component of any realm

it's

o1'

knor.vledge is "krror,ving what .vou krrow." termed nteta knowledge (or rreta-cognition). Without rnela-knor.vledge yoLr rvouldn't knou, whcn to stop stLrd-r,'ing fbr a test or eveu w'hen to stop rcciting

a

phone number to y'ourself. Applied to r,vayfinding, meta-knou,ledge rneans tracking the quality ol the infbrrnation you have available to you that is useful for finding )'our way back to horne or carnp.

knor,yu'hich r,vay to turn at all of these intersecting trails vou're traveling? [f this question occurs to you, yoLr will more likely take steps to rnemorize the sequence of turns tharr the person rvho merely enjoys the scenery, and to look back over your shoulder as you exit each intersection Do

y'or"r

(Cornell, Heth.

& Rorvat. 1992).

It is interesting to note that young children rarely have meta-knowledge of tlreir own spatial abilities. For example. tlre1, "61on', knolv that they don't knor.v" their rvay aroLrnd the rvoods. and it apparently doesn't seen.r to occur to thern tltat thel' could set lost. This probably accor"rnts for why young children (quite unlike the school-aged child) are rarely afraid o1'beconring lost per se X (although they often lear being separated frorn parents), and rvill readily follow an animal into the fbrest or strike out on little exploring expeditions- pa1 ing uo cr)ncem to the retLrrn trip. While the school-aged child is usualll, capable of assessing his orvn spatial knor'vled-ue of an trrea. he lieqLrently fails to do so sr-rccessfirlly. For example. lre rnay be reluctant to step out of his lantas,v- pla\,. 1l,,tu"uer bricfly'. in orderto take a sobering accor-nt ol'his knolvledge o[-spatial position. Moreover. he rnal'not even knou,r,vhat krnd of knou'ledge is necessary for wayfinding pllrposes, such as directions to turrr at intersections in the trail. and nray rnake little effort to merrorize landrnarks along the u,av. He rnal,be easily deluded into believing that he knows tlre way. rvhile being hopelessly disoriented.

Getting "Unturned Around" Anyone lr,ho speuds enough tirne in the r,r'oods will, sooner or later. becorne lost. Nearll'allof tlrc experienced outdoorsmen I have survey'ed admitted to having been significantll, "tunred around" at least once. El'en Daniel Boone. according to a popr-rlar SAR quotatiorr- is purpofted to once having been "conflsed fbr several rveeks.'' In this section ['lldiscuss rnethods which people use to reorient thcnrselves once they beconrc lost. This intbrnration corres frorn structured

intervier.vs rvith rescued lost persons. condLrcted soon alier(sometirles clLrring) tlteir recoverl. arrd tested throLrgh survel'research and interviervs

Cole.

& Murphy.

lvith

120 deer htrnters irt Nova Scotia

1993). Generalll,, persons u,ho becorne disoriented

will

(tlill. Farlev,

use at least one ollhese

Lost

Psychology of

8

tnethods. sonre of rvltich are considerably more efTective than others. and rrost lost people

willtry

rnore than one.

Random traveling. Totally confused. and usr-rally experiencing high emotional arousal. the lost person moves arolutd random ly. following the path of least resistance. rvith no apparent purpose other than to f'lnd somethirtg or some place that looks farniliar. Although many lost people

will a

move randotnly during their initial reaction to being lost. most people

will settle dorvn and apply

lrore effective methttd. Only'a felr' lost persons such as some sclrool-age children by u ill continue to t-nove randornlv dr-rring tlreir ordeal. Most lost peoplc shorv

thetrselvcs

-

sornervhat rnore purposefirl behavior in their attetnpts to get out oFthe woods.

Route traveling. In this case. the lost person decides to travel on sorle trail. path. drainage. or otlter travel aid. The roLtte is unknown to them and they are unceftain regarding the direction the1,'re headed, but they hope that eventually they u,ill corne upon sornething farniliar. When this hope is quashed. as it often is. they, rarely reverse their direction on the route to go the other way. If the trail peters out, for exatnple. they may reveft to random traveling, as described above. Sometimes referred to as

"trail ruuning." this is usLrally an ineffective method of reorientation. shown rnost

often br' school-aged children under l 2 years ofage.

Direction traveling. Certain that safety lies in one particular direction, the lost person rnakes his u'ay cross country, often ignoring trails and paths leading the "wror.rg" direction. Sonretimes. irr fact- a person lvill cross railroad tracks. power lines. highways and even backl,ards in their conviction tltat they're headed the right r'vay. [Jnfortunately. this strategy (u'hich is rarely effective) often gets thenr into the thickest parl of the woods. rraking them especially difficult to find. lt takes corrsiderable overcontidence about one's sense of direction to employ this loolish tactic. lvhich is not unconrt'lonly employed by sub-iects olland searches. Mosttypically, it is seen in sorne hunters rvho ltavc cotne to exaggerate their outdoor skills to others and to thentselves. believing there is solne soft o1'shame in becorning turned around. (Variations on this urethod are recomrnended by Ansier. 1956, and Brown. 198i. who suggest lining up landrnarks in astraight line in orderto ensLlre a consistent direction of travel.)

Route sampling. Here, the person uses an intersection of trails as a "base." proceeding to travel sotle distance down each tlail in search of something farniliar. After "sarnpling" a parlicular route without success, they return to the iutersection and try another path, repeating the process until all ror-rtes at that intersection have been sampled. Three possibilities then arise: (1) they rna1, repeat the samplin-q procedure. but now traveling farther distances on each routel (2) they mal,choose instead to proceed down the Iikeliest trai I until they come to another intersection, where they can repeat the strateg)'; or (3) they may decide to try another tactic altogether. Older children and adolescents sometilles reporl having tried this nrethod of reoricutation. It can be effectivc wheu cornbined with backtracking (see belorv).

I)irection sampling. This is similarto

exceptlhatthe lost person does no1 oltrails. Rather. the person selects sorne idcntifiablc

roLrte sampling.

have the trdvantagc provided hy an intersectiorr

landmark as a "base," such as a large tree or outcropping. Frorn there. they go in selected

Psychology of

Lost

e

directions, ah.vays keeping the base in view. Iooking for something that r.vill help thern figure out where they are. When they're just about to lose sight of the base, they retunt to it and sample another directiorr, repeating the process until all possible directions seem to have been tried. Often, however, the1, do lose their base before the sarnpling procedure can be completed. At that point they tend to rnove arourrd in the rvoods sornervhat randomly Lrntil tlrey find a landrnark suitable for

serviug as a new base. and the directional sarrpling strateg)- may be starled aner,v. (This method is recomrncnded by Brown. 1983. and Flemin-u. 1994.)

Vicw enhancing. l.lnable to find anything tamiliar aftcr traveling around in the lvoods. the lost person attenrpts to gain a position of height in order to view landmarks in the distance. The person attempts to enhance his view by clirnbing a hill. ridge. or tree. A knowledgeable adult with a topo rnap or at least some suryey knowledge of the area. surrounded by dense vegetation, rright attempt to reorient himself by clinrbing a hill (sometimes a tree. if this can be done safely) and matching visible terrain features with those on his rnap. Indeed. rnanv experienced outdoorslnen repoft vierv enhancenrent as a favored method of reorientation (e.g., Fleming. 1994). Backtracking. Once getting tunred arourrd. the person reverses hirnself and attempts to follows the exact route that brouglrt tlrent into the rvoods. This can be a very effective rnethod il'the lost person has the skills and patience to employ it. Unfortunately, lost persons seern reluctaltt to reverse their direction of travel rvithout good reason. believing perhaps that it would just be a waste of tirne and safeq,'rnight be over the next hill or around the next bend in the trail. ll-a person becorres confusecl on a route that has nLlrnerous brarrches. he can backtrackto each intersection and enrplov a ror.rte sarnpling tactic to deternrine the correct fbrk (Roberls. 1988). If the person is in the bLrsh and competent at reading tracks he should be ablc to fbllow his own si-gn back. Ho,uvever. this can solnetitnes be a very difllcult task. and SAR lorc includes the talc of one haplcss. fonnerll, reno\\n tracker who could not follou,his olvn trail out of the rvilderness, having to be rescued by a srrirking colleague following his sign. Using folk wisdom. This is a miscellaneous categorv that refers to an atternpt to reorierrt oneself b1, using arry of the numerous adages on how to find your way safely out of the rvoods. Lrsually passed on over camp fires or even disguised as "facts" in survival books. 'I'he ntost col-nnron of these is the advice that ''all strearrs lead to civilization." a principle that. if lollor.ved ilt Nova Scotia. rvill rrore than likell'lead the lost person to a rernote and bLrg-infested swanrp. One popLrlar and othenvise useful sur"vival text advises the lost person to reorient hirnself b1' locating his or her "place of birth'' by'facing various directions and having a tiiend test one's arm strength at each orientation (Fear. 1979,p.156). The idea is that 5.,oLr are strongest when yon face your bir-thplace, and that ),ou can Lrse this information in deterrrining the direction out of tror-rble. I include this notion r'rhich seerrs a bi1 exotic, if not far-fbtched only to illLrstrate the diversity ol ideas often profl'ered as lr'alfindiug advice. Staying put. [iverv rvoocls safetl' progran] strcsses the inrpoftance of "sta1,ing where \rtu are" rvhen becoming lost, rvhich can be considered an excellent if sonrelvhat passir,,e strateg), for reorientation. so long as the lost person can reasonably expect a search to be organized on his

Psychology of

Lost

10

behalf in the very near future. Sadly, very fer'v people apply this rnethod of getting out of the woods safely. While it is trr-re that most lost persous are found in a stationary position (especially after the first 24 hoLrrs of the search), this is usually because they are fatigued, asleep, or unconscious. ln my review of over 800 Nova Scotia lost person repofts, I foLrnd only two cases in which the sLrbjects had intentionally stayed in one place in order for searchers to find them tnore easily. One r.vas an

l-year-old boy who had received Hr-rg-a-Tree traiuing at school, while the other was an S0-yearold apple picker who settled dowrr cornfortably withirr 5 minutes of being tunred aroLrnd.-iLrst 100 1

lreters frorn where she had etrtered the woods. Our survey of experienced outdoorsmen revealed that they are aware that staying put is the recommended course of action. though they may be disinclined to stay in one place for any length of time. especially during the day (Hill. Farley, Cole, & Murphy, 1993). As mentioned above, a popular reorientation strategy reported by these individuals was view enhancement. such as

clirnbing a hill in hope of spottiug something farniliar. Interestingly, respondents in this sur"vey who had experienced several or more occasions of having been lost were significantly -1ess inclined to irrdicate

"follow a strealn to civilization"

as a useful strategy, possibly because this advice had

merely brought thent in contact with the aforentetttioned srvamps.

THE ROLE OF EMOTION There can be no question that becoming lost is nonnally accornpauied by high ernotional arousal. and ahnost every lost persorl the author has interviewecl has confessed to having been upset cluring their ordeal. sorne (pa(icularly with children) to the point olnausea and stotnach pain. In this sectiorr I shall describe the effects o1'general arousal on the lost person's behavior. as wellas the specific effects offear.

Arousal All ernotional experience is parl rnental or cognitive and

part physiologicaL The physiological

component involves ceftain glandular secretions (sr.rch as slvealr palms or a rush of adrenalin) as u,ell as stirnulation of a part of the brain called the limbic system.lt is this latter structure r.vhere the physiological and cognitive reactions appearto interact. It has long been kttown that a moderate level of arousal isoptimal formental functioning, such as leaming. reasorring, and problern solving. while levels too low or too high tend to have detrimental effects (Yerkes & Dodson, 1908). The relatiorrship between arousal and thought tlrerefbre defines an inverted [J-shaped function. as shorvn in Figure

l. Thus. when the brain is under aroused, such

as wherr the person is drorvsy,

thought processes are diffuse and unfocused. More irnporlantly. for or-tr purposes. wlten arousal is intense. thoLrghts tend to scatter in irrelevant directions. rnaking the person unable to ct.lncelttrate ot.t solving even sinrple problens. Also. too ntuch arousal can reduce the nlttnber of cttvironrtretttal cltes the person can perceiv,e. thLrs irrterfering rvith the recognition of farniliar objects, people. or places

Psychology of Lost

(Easterbrook, 1 959).

Fear Fear, of course, is a specific type of emotional reaction, having effects beyond those of general

physiological arousal. Fear stimulates a heightened concern for self-preservation, mobilizing the body for flightthrough the secretion of adrenalin and increased blood supply to the legs. lt's no this is exactly wonder, therefore, that the lost person's impulse is to move rather than stay put interferes with higher mental like general arousal what his body is telling him to do. Fear

functioning, such

-

-

as concentration and problem solving, and may cause a regression to more

"primitive" modes of thought. Older children, for example, may revert to using the reasoning processes of preschoolers, which they have long outgrown.

Figure l.lnverted U-shaped function between levelof arousal and performance effectiveness. Note that moderate arousal is associated with peak performance. and that extremely low or high arousal Ieads to poor performance.

0)

o

E (tr

E L

too)

(L

moderate Arousal Level

Psychology of Losl

Fear of the woods. Several studies repoft that children and teens are frequently afiaid of the . 1916) In one study. ch ildren were asked to narne tlre "scary" places in and around the subLrrban area where they lived. and forested areas were second only to haunted houses in scariness (interestingly. the salne children also irrdicated interest in visiting these woods, although they rarely went there: llart. 1979). lndeed. much anecdotal evidence frotn many quafters suppofts the conclusion that most childrerr and many woods. although the source of such fears may be varied (e.g., Kaplan

adults have apprehensions about entering the forest, especially alone. It's impoftant to note, however. that the woods themselves are rarely'the stirnulus for such fears, but are feared fbr what objegjs or

cxpericnces nray' be tbund there. That is, people don't t'ear clumps of trees so rn-[idh1ilE66ars. -r,vildilogs. and olher dangerous animals, as well as the darkness. the ghosts, and the strangers lLrrking there. no lnatter how unrealistic these fears may be.

Fear of getting lost. One of the oldest studies of fears, repofted a century ago by G. Stanlel, Hall, revealed that the "dread of getting lost is common" in children and adults alike (Hall, 1897). The author described lnany exarnples of suclt fear, such as one worran who was "haunted by the thought of losing the points oithe compass

ir.r

sorne wood. . . accompanied by a sickening

sensation." More recent studies confirrn that many people fear getting lost, especially in wooded environtnetrts. For children beyond the age of approximately four years of age. sr-rch fear will be exacerbated by numerous other fears, described above. with the resr-rlt that the child r.nay become

tcrrificd and rrearll, non-functional. It is cournon for lost children to hide fronr searchcrs. to ignore their calls. and to stand petrified at the approach of a helicopter sinrply because they've becrr

)(.rot

taught to avoid strangers, as is often believed, but because every strange stinrulus urrder such

conditions is a source of

terror.

\