Presence Probe

From EuroVR Knowledge Base

Description

This methodology is based on the view that a sense of place is an important aspect of presence (based on Relph’s (1976) model of place, which defines three components of “place identity”: physical setting, activities afforded by the place, and meanings attributed to the place). One of the goals of the presence probe is to be able to compare (benchmark) real and virtual environments. The presence probe consists of several sections: (i) visitor’s book in which participants briefly describe their experience of the visited place, (ii) participants are asked to sketch a map of the visited place, (iii) 3 sets of 3 semantic differential items, and (iv) participants are asked to pick a photograph that best exemplifies their experience, and to write down 6 words which best describe their experience of the place.

Primary Reference or Source

• McCall, R., O’Neill, S., Carroll, F., & Benyon, D. (2004). The Presence Probe. Paper presented at the Workshop on Designing and Evaluating Virtual Reality Systems, University of Notthingham, UK.