Experience of Presence in Virtual Environments

Abstract : Much attention has been focused on feeling a sense of presence in a virtual environment (VE). The potential importance of presence is based on an assumption that increasing the sense of presence experienced in a VE leads to an improvement in task performance. This document summarizes the results of experimental work that has been performed. Nearly 70 different measures of presence are identified, and over 100 studies that investigated various issues about the presence construct are cited. There are 83 findings regarding a relationship between presence and task performance. Roughly half of these show a significant correlation most in the expected direction. As yet, there is no evidence whether the relationships that do exist are causal in nature. Nonetheless, some conclusions are clear. Despite a decade of research, the role of presence in VEs is still unclear. No commonly agreed theory of presence much less common measures for this construct exist. Some evidence exists that particular technological, task, and personal characteristics can influence the extent of presence experienced in a VE. However, the critical question of whether manipulating presence can achieve improved task performance remains unanswered.