Presence and Reality

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Presence and Reality

• Making Media Experiences Conceptually Real by
  Getting Beyond Sense Perceptions

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Michael A. ShapiroCornell University

• With the help of
• T. Makana Chock, Indiana University
• Claudia Barriga, Cornell
• Jorge Peña-Herborn, Cornell
• Jeffrey T. Hancock, Cornell
• Norman Porticella, Cornell
• Courtney Erin Silver, Cornell

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What is presence?According to ISPR

• Part or all of the individual's perception fails
  to accurately acknowledge the role of technology
  in an experience.
• at some level and to some degree, her/his
  perceptions overlook that knowledge and objects,
  events, entities, and environments are perceived
  as if the technology was not involved in the
  experience.
• "Social realism" when a person's perception fails
  to accurately acknowledge the role of technology
  that makes it appear that s/he is in a physical
  location and environment in which the social
  characteristics correspond to those of the
  physical world

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There is little reference to other aspects of
mental processing.

• There is no reference to knowledge about the
  world except for perceptual knowledge.
• There is no reference to inference processes or
  mental constructs.
• There is no reference to the ability to
  understand that appearance often does not
  represent the true nature of things
• There is no reference to imagination

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This is equivalent to a novel in which almost all
the effort went into describing the setting

• ignoring what the reader knows, feels and can
  infer.

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Presence occurs during an encounter with
technology and not before or after this encounter.

• Past research on higher order processes has
  focused on effects of rather than processing
  during

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Perceived realism as an on-line process

• People make judgments about the realism of what
  they see as they see it
• With maturity more and more higher order
  processes inform this processalong with the
  perceptual
• There is a relationship between this notion of
  realism and presence.
• We suspect the causal direction is primarily from
  realism to presence
• Game players strongly prefer realistic
  environments

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Making it Real

• Reality is a characteristic of the message and
  the perceiver.
• Reality is based on thought as much as sensation

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For Young Children
Sense Perception
Realism
Higher order mental processes
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As you mature
Sense Perception
Realism
Higher order mental processes
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Sensory devices can even lead to less realism

• Characters with the best aiming skill were judged
  as unlikely to be human. (Laird Duchi, 2000).
• Haptic features can make you more aware you are
  playing a game

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What are some of these higher order processes?
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How something looks doesnt always represent its
true nature

• Children think people who look pretty are nice.
  Adults include how they act.

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The ability to apply knowledge of the physical
and social world

• Real looking dragons frighten small children.
  Older children know they dont exist no matter
  how realistic.

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So what have we found?
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Physical judgments about realism are more
automatic than conceptual
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People rate realism from moment to moment
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Realism judgments take place at the interface
between story elements, mental abilities and
individual characteristics
Story Elements
Mental abilities
Individual Characteristics
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Social judgments influence realism judgments

• People think bad things are more real for other
  people
• When bad things happen to other people they seem
  more real if given situational information. When
  good things happen they seem more real if given
  dispositional information.

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If realism leads to presence

• Part of realism does not depend on the immediate
  perceptual experience
• Then part of the experience of presence has to do
  with higher order processes
• Understanding these higher order processes is
  important in designing and understanding
  immersive environments

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Environments that go beyond the sensory

• Environments that make sense (within the
  assumptions of the environment)
• Environments that respond to the users logical
  processes
• Environments that call on the users knowledge
• Environments where real social relationships
  are formed

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To do that we need

• Better models of how knowledge, logic, and
  inference lead to realism
• Environments that model these processes
• Environment tools that allow researchers to
  investigate these processes