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Heeter, C. (1992). Being there: The subjective experience of presence. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 1(2), 262–271.

Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard Last edited by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard 11/09/2018, 17:20

Personal presence is subjective and "is a measure of the extent to which and the reasons why you feel like you are in a virtual world."

"Social presence refers to the extent to which other beings (living or synthetic) also exist in the world and appear to react to you."

"Environmental presence refers to the extent to which the environment itself appears to know that you are there and to react to you [sic]."

"[The virtual world responds like the natural world] and in a way that differentiates self from world. You move and the world stays still."

Heeter proposes a "social construction of virtual reality" following philosophers' discussion of the social constrution of reality.

"When you walk into a room in the real world, it does not verbally or musically greet you or start raining."

Suggests that different tasks in VR might require more or less sensory fidelity (compared to real world sensory environments) in order to attain a sense of presence.

Familiarity and experience with the virtual world might increase the sense of presence. Conversely (Heeter does not note the contradiction), familiarity breeds contempt as expectations rise and previously adequate presence experiences later suffer in light of new technological capability. cf Uncanny Wall (Tinwell, Grimshaw, & Williams 2011).

Although many real worlds do not respond to you, as if acknowledging your presence, the lack of response in VR might limit presence (cf environmental presence).

Different genders, ages etc. might have different criteria for presence. Equally, humans have preferred sensory channels and so this channel might be preferred for attaining presence: "Is one person's experience of presence in a virtual world the same as another's?"

Heeter, C. (2003). Reflections on real presence by a virtual person. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 12(4), 335–345.

Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard 11/09/2018, 17:07

Heeter, C. (2016). A meditation on meditation and embodied presence. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 25(2), 175–183.

Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard Last edited by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard 01/09/2020, 12:38

"To be human is to be embodied, to exist in a sea of bodily sensations far vaster than our limited attentional spotlight can attend to. Bodily sensations are the substrate of all experience. Even our emotions and thoughts are experienced in and by the body. And yet, most of the time, most of us focus on something other these present- moment sensations. Most of the time, we are not present. How people structure their attention ‘‘determines what will or will not appear in consciousness’’ (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Embodied presence occurs when our mind integrates attention to embodied feelings with other present-moment bodily sensations to produce a heightened awareness of the moment and of the sensory self. However, the major theories of presence (social presence, copresence, self-presence, hyper presence, and external presence) all define presence as an illusion about the virtual-ness of a virtual experience (Schultze, 2010). Their approach implies that we are always present when there is no virtuality. In this essay, I will argue that 1) regardless of virtuality, we are almost never present; 2) embodied presence is an attentional orientation that is learned and practiced; and 3) the design of virtual experiences can facilitate embodied presence."

"embodied presence is an attentional orientation that is learned and practice"

"the normal human condition is to not be present."

"Interoceptive awareness is a prerequisite for embodied presence . . . The interoceptive pathway and the DMN are competing neural pathways. They are not active at the same time . . . Interoceptive awareness refers to sensitivity to and awareness of physical sensations such as tempera- ture, pain, touch, and sensing from internal gastrointes- tinal, respiratory, cardiovascular, and urogenital systems."

"Closing the eyes activates interoception. . . closing eyes some of the time enhanced interoceptive awareness and when eyes re-opened, the virtual world felt different. More vivid . . . Closing the eyes animates our somatosensory systems including touch, proprioception (vibration and position), pain, and temperature (Jao et al., 2013). Closing the eyes also activates olfaction (smell) and gustatory systems (taste), even in the absence of olfactory or gustatory stimuli (Wiesmann et al., 2006). Closing the eyes activates our interoception network (used for processing the internal state) that includes imagination and memory (Xu et al., 2014). Opening the eyes is associated with stronger ‘‘local ef- ficiency’’ in specific regions of the brain and an increase in specialized information processing. But this comes at a cost. Opening the eyes suppresses interoception. Opening the eyes reduces the synchronicity, global effi- ciency, and integrated connections across visual, somatic, and auditory sensory systems (Jao et al., 2013; Xu et al., 2014). Opening the eyes suppresses imagination, mem- ory, and perception of internal states."

Jao, T., Ve ́rtes, P. E., Alexander-Bloch, A. F., Tang, I.-N., Yu, Y.-C., Chen, J.-H., & Bullmore, E. T. (2013). Volitional eyes opening perturbs brain dynamics and functional con- nectivity regardless of light input. NeuroImage, 69, 21–34.

Wiesmann, M., Kopietz, R., Albrecht, J., Linn, J., Reime, U., Kara, E., . . . Stephan, T. (2006). Eye closure in darkness ani- mates olfactory and gustatory cortical areas. NeuroImage, 32(1), 293–300.

Xu, P., Huang, R., Wang, J., Van Dam, N. T., Xie, T., Dong, Z., . . . Luo, Y. (2014). Different topological organization of human brain functional networks with eyes open versus eyes closed. NeuroImage, 90, 246–255.

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