Temporal and Spatial Variations in Presence: A Qualitative Analysis

This paper presents the qualitative findings from an experiment designed to investigate breaks in presence. Participants spent approximately 5 minutes in an immersive CAVE-like system depicting a virtual bar with five virtual characters. On four occasions the projections were made to go white to trigger clearly identifiable “anomalies” in the audiovisual experience. Participants’ autonomic responses were measured throughout to investigate possible physiological correlates of these experienced anomalies. Our analysis of the interviews with participants suggests that these anomalies were subjectively experienced as breaks in presence. The findings also reveal that breaks in presence have multiple causes and can range in intensity, resulting in varying recovery times. In addition, presence can vary in intensity within the same space, suggesting that presence in an immersive VE can fluctuate both temporally and spatially.

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