Immersion, presence and performance in virtual environments

TLDR

The study situates itself within a theoretical framework linking immersion, presence, and performance in virtual environments. The authors aim to evaluate how immersion level affects performance in immersive virtual environments. Participants played Tri‑Dimensional Chess, reproducing board states on a real board after viewing moves in a virtual setting, with 24 subjects assigned to a factorial design varying immersion (screen‑based vs. HMD) and environment realism (plain vs.

Abstract

This paper describes an experiment to assess the influence of immersion on performance in immersive virtual environments. The task involved Tri-Dimensional Chess, and required subjects to reproduce on a real chess board the state of board learned from a sequence of moves witnessed in a virtual environment. Twenty four subjects were allocated to a factorial design consisting of two levels of immersion (exocentric screen based, and egocentric HMD based), and two kinds of environment (plain and realistic). The results suggest that egocentric subjects performed better than exocentric, and those in the more realistic environment performed better than those in the less realistic environment. Previous knowledge of chess, and amount of virtual practice were also significant, and may be considered as control variables to equalise these factors amongst the subjects. Other things being equal, males remembered the moves better than females, although female performance improved with higher spatial ability test score. The paper also attempts to clarify the relationship between immersion, presence and performance, and locates the experiment within such a theoretical framework.