Introduction: Beyond Presence

Abstract

Presence is a concept arising from the use of sophisticated remote control devices and virtual reality equipment. It refers to the user's sense of being at a remote or virtual environment. This introduction briefly describes some of how the research on this concept developed, as well as some of the issues of how it is defined and measured. It also suggests that earlier research has been biased towards analyzing how attributes of technology or the environment impacts the individual rather than examining how individual psychological, cognitive, and attentional variables affect our virtual interactions. Current research is exploring new models and issues in the presence arena, as illustrated by this set of articles in this issue of CyberPsychology and Behavior. The development of these directions will hopefully expand our thinking about "virtual presence" to that of "virtual experience."