The use of the term immersion to describe a multitude of varying experiences in the absence of a definitional consensus has obfuscated and diluted the term. The non-exhaustive literature review presented in this paper indicates that immersion is a psychological concept as opposed to being a property of the system or technology that facilitates an experience. An adaptable definition of immersion is synthesized based on the findings from the literature review: a state of deep mental involvement in which the individual may experience disassociation from the awareness of the physical world due to a shift in their attentional state. This definition is used to contrast and differentiate interchangeably used terms such as presence from immersion and outline the implications for conducting immersion research on audiovisual experiences. A new methodology for quantifying immersion is proposed and avenues for future work are briefly discussed.

Understanding the concept of immersion and its influencing factors is critical for enabling engaging audiovisual experiences. However, a lack of definitional consensus and suitable methods for assessing immersion hinder research on the subject. This chapter discusses the idea of immersion based on a non-exhaustive literature review of the topic and presents an adaptable definition of immersion that is not limited to virtual reality applications. Additionally, an exploratory experimental paradigm for measuring immersion in audiovisual experiences is described. The description of immersion and the experimental framework presented in this chapter are a starting point for resolving the difference in opinion and developing novel methods to thoroughly explore the concept of immersion respectively.