Presence as External Versus Internal Experience: How Form, User, Style, and Content Factors Produce Presence from the Inside

This paper describes and explores two major opposing perspectives in presence theory. The external/perceptual perspective recognizes presence exclusively as a response to the external environment while the internal/conceptual perspective allows for the influence of mental models in constructing the environment one feels present within. Form, user, style, and content factors are discussed in terms of their relationship to these perspectives and with regard to their function in evoking presence. Keywords--Book Problem, Cognitive Priming, Content Factors, Flow, Form Factors, Mental Model, Mental Simulation, Style Factors, Suspension of Disbelief, User Factors