Subjective disorientation as a metacognitive feeling

Abstract

There is a large body of literature on disorientation, ranging from behavioral studies to the analysis of search and rescue operations. However, the subjective side of disorientation remains insufficiently explored and, as a result, there is no unified account of the phenomenon. A working characterization of disorientation is a first step in the direction of this unified account. Through the study of an array of subjective experiences of disorientation, we shall first distinguish between the objective condition of being lost and the subjective condition of disorientation. Our central claim is then that disorientation is a metacognitive feeling. Specifically, we claim that disorientation is a metacognitive feeling of low confidence in the subject’s online system of spatial representation.