Measuring Presence: a Literature-based Approach to the Development of a Standardized Paper-and-pencil Instrument

Although it is the focus of a growing number of scholars in communication, computer science, psychology, and cognitive science, there is little agreement concerning the nature and measurement of presence. Marvin Minsky (1980) used the term "telepresence" to refer to teleoperation technology that provides the user with a "remote presence" in a different location via feedback systems that allow her to "see and feel what is happening" there. In 1991, the term was adapted and shortened when the journal Presence (MIT Press) was founded to provide a forum for "current research and advanced ideas on teleoperators and virtual environments." By 1997 a review, by Lombard and Ditton identified six different conceptualizations of presence in a diverse set of literatures: presence as social richness (the "warmth" or "intimacy" possible via a medium), realism (perceptual and/or social), transportation (the sensations of "you are there," "it is here," and/or "we are together"), immersion (in a mediated environment), social actor within medium (e.g., parasocial interaction), and medium as social actor (e.g., treating computers as social entities). The authors incorporated all of these conceptualizations of presence into a single definition: "the perceptual illusion of nonmediation." The term "perceptual" indicates that this phenomenon involves continuous (real time) responses of the human sensory, cognitive, and affective processing systems to objects and entities in a person's environment. An "illusion of nonmediation" occurs when a person fails to perceive or acknowledge the existence of a medium in his/her communication environment and responds as he/she would if the medium were not there.