Measuring Presence in Virtual Environments: A Presence Questionnaire

Abstract

The effectiveness of virtual environments (VEs) has often been linked to the sense of presence reported by users of those VEs. (Presence is defined as the subjective experience of being in one place or environment, even when one is physically situated in another.) We believe that presence is a normal awareness phenomenon that requires directed attention and is based in the interaction between sensory stimulation, environmental factors that encourage involvement and enable immersion, and internal tendencies to become involved. Factors believed to underlie presence were described in the premier issue of Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments. We used these factors and others as the basis for a presence questionnaire (PQ) to measure presence in VEs. In addition we developed an immersive tendencies questionnaire (ITQ) to measure differences in the tendencies of individuals to experience presence. These questionnaires are being used to evaluate relationships among reported presence and other research variables. Combined results from four experiments lead to the following conclusions: the PQ and ITQ are internally consistent measures with high reliability; there is a weak but consistent positive relation between presence and task performance in VEs; individual tendencies as measured by the ITQ predict presence as measured by the PQ; and individuals who report more simulator sickness symptoms in VE report less presence than those who report fewer symptoms.

Why and how to use virtual reality to study human social interaction: The challenges of exploring a new research landscape

“…As both place and plausibility illusions are subjective concepts, a variety of questionnaires have been developed to measure them (Usoh et al ., 2000; Witmer & Singer, 1998). These ask questions such as ‘To what extent did you have a sense that you were in the same place as person X?’ and ‘To what extend did you have a sense of being part of the group?’ Individual differences in response could be caused by differences in personality, in multisensory integration (Haans, Kaiser, Bouwhuis, & IJsselsteijn, 2012), in prior experience of gaming/VR, or other factors.…”

Design and testing of a virtual environment to train stroke patients with unilateral spatial neglect to cross a street safely

“…Indeed, one of the cardinal features of virtual reality is the provision of a sense of actual presence in and control over the simulated environment (for example, Witmer and Singer, 1998). This feature is achieved to a greater or lesser extent in the various applications of virtual reality, depending on the goals of the particular application and the cost and technical complexity its developers are willing and able to assume.…”

A Theoretical Framework for the Evaluation of Virtual Reality Technologies Prior to Use: A Biological Evolutionary Approach Based on a Modified Media Naturalness Theory

“…That being said, a brief overview of this field is prudent in better understanding the intent of this study as well. Witmer and Singer (1998), for example, define presence as "the subjective experience of being in one place or environment, even when one is physically situated in another". The authors continue, indicating that presence in virtual environments may be achieved to varying degrees based on the satisfaction of variables such as the necessary conditions for presence (namely the allocation of selective attention), the psychological state of involvement (a consequence of focusing one's energy and attention on a coherent set of stimuli or related activities and events), the psychological state of immersion (perceiving oneself to be enveloped by, included in, and interacting with an environment that provides a continuous stream of stimuli and experiences), and the eventual establishment of presence.…”

“…Despite the discrepancies between the definitions of and relationships between presence and immersion (Witmer & Singer, 1998;Slater, 1999;Constantin & Grigorovici, 2003;Shuemie, Van Der Straaten, Krijn, & Van Der Mast, 2001), research in the field of presence commonly accepts a correlative relationship between immersion and presence while disregarding immersion as the primarily quantifiable measure, instead turning to methods and approaches in an attempt to measure presence. This trend to supersede immersion in presence research has resulted in the fields of presence and immersion studies diverging, and immersion research establishing a whole field of their own.…”