A Survey of Presence and Related Concepts

Abstract

The presence construct, most commonly defined as the sense of “being there,” has driven research and development of virtual environments (VEs) for decades. Despite that, there is not widespread agreement on how to define or operationalize this construct. The literature contains many different definitions of presence and many proposed measures for it. This article reviews many of the definitions, measures, and models of presence from the literature. We also review several related constructs, including social presence, copresence, immersion, agency, transportation, reality judgment, and embodiment. In addition, we present a meta-analysis of existing presence models and propose a model of presence informed by Slater’s Place Illusion and Plausibility Illusion constructs.