What is Immersion?
Last updated
Last updated
Immersion is achieved when a person forgets his position in space and time and believes that s/he is in a different environment. Through new media, such as virtual reality, this feeling can more easily be triggered, but it is commonly known to also happen in traditional media with books being a prime example of getting absorbed into another world
The concept of 'immersion' is studied in various disciplines. In research into the effects of gaming, the concept falls regularly (eg Jennett et al., 2008). Furthermore, immersion has also been studied by film audiences (eg Bjørner et al., 2016; Hemenover & Schimack, 2007). Our literature study shows that the majority of immersion studies are related to interactivity in computer games and virtual reality (VR) (eg Brown & Cairns, 2004; Calleja, 2011; Qin et al., 2009). Virtual reality is a term that refers to a computer-generated virtual environment through which the user can move in real-time and in some cases can also make adjustments to that environment. The main difference between VR systems and traditional media is situated in the strong three-dimensional structure, through which it can achieve special effects on the public, such as immersion, 'presence' and 'absorption' (Mandal, 2013). 360 ° video is more realistic than VR in the sense that it makes less use of computer animations and is more focused on recording a situation from an omni-directional camera or a collection of cameras. With 360 ° video, the viewer can decide for himself in which direction he looks around (CNET, 2016).
Although it has been less researched by the readers of books, listening to music or reading / viewing journalistic products, we also see that people can experience a feeling of immersion (Marconi & Nakagawa, 2016).
There is no no generally accepted definition of immersion (Jennett et al., 2008, Brown & Cairns, 2004). Different studies seem to understand the concept differently, which is reflected in the different ways in which the concept is operationalized in scientific studies (Jennett et al., 2008).
Usually refer to immersion as the feeling that occurs in a situation where spectators (viewers, gamers, etc.) focus so much attention on medium content, and where the latter causes 'involvement', that the audience things that happen around them no longer notice. This can then express itself in different ways:
The loss of (almost) all sense of time: what time it is and how long you have been watching
Not being aware of other events taking place in the same physical space (eg a person entering the room or someone asking a question)
Not responding to the environment
High involvement and a sense of meaning in the environment where the task is to be performed ("Immersion is like when you are in the world and become your character. in that world, the game one.” (Calleja, 2007)
Existing research shows that immersion can express itself in different ways: the audience can feel completely 'involved' by the 'real' content of a game, but studies show that, for example, a totally 'unrealistic' game like Tetris can work quite naturally. because the gamer is so focused on the correct descent of the play cubes. It thus appears that different types of immersion are possible (see Towards a typology of immersion).
Before going deeper into this typology, we first discuss the various possible levels with which immersion can occur in the next section. Existing research shows that users can be 'involved' to varying degrees by a media product (Brown & Cairns, 2004).
Three levels of immersion can be achieved (Brown & Cairns, 2004). The study by Bjørner et al. (2016) shows that this is also the case for the viewers of a film. It is therefore important to recognize that if immersion occurs, this can then express itself in various possible gradations.
According to Cairns & Brown (2004), a viewer starts at the lowest level of 'reality' and can then depend on the obstacles that the viewer wants to bridge (eg opening up to the story, making an effort to play the game). play, to learn the controls, to accept the narrative format) evolve into 'total immersion'. 'Total immersion', however, certainly does not always occur and as the table below shows, it is a rather volatile, usually short-lived and specific experience of immersion.
Tabel : Different levels of immersion
Level 0: ‘reality’
Reality is defined as a level at which the viewer is totally aware of the environment and does not yet have involvement with the film or has perceptual attention to it. 'Reality' is also described in other literature as 'disengagement' (O'Brien & Toms, 2008).
In order to evolve from disengagement to involvement, the viewer has to overcome a number of obstacles ('access', 'investment' (time and money), 'preference' (interest user)). 'Preference' is a major obstacle at this lowest level, in the sense that only a person with enough attention will try to overcome the obstacle.
Level 1: ‘Involvement’
At this level people feel involved with the product, but at the same time people are still largely aware of the environment. Possible obstacles that may prevent the user from evolving to the next level are a lack of narrative incentives that can stimulate the curiosity of the user (Busselle & Bilandzic 2008) and non-fulfilled audiovisual expectations for the user (Tan, 2008).
Level 2: ‘engrossment’
'Engrossment' (or 'deep interest') is defined as 'a kind of zen state where the hands seem to work automatically and know what to do, and where the 'mind' is completely in line with the course of the story." (Brown & Cairns, 2004).
A condition to achieve this level is that the story or game is well constructed. This means that the story or game has to directly influence the gamer's emotions and that the controls that have to be carried out by the gamer are largely made invisible and are set in an automatic manner. When these conditions are met, the viewer or the gamer can become less aware of the game environment or the environment in which the story is viewed and read.
Level 3: ‘total immersion’
The third level is 'total immersion'. This is the highest level of involvement and it is fairly rare that this level is reached. It is a fairly volatile experience that in some cases does not last longer than a few seconds. In total immersion, spectators feel so 'involved' that they completely disconnect from their surroundings. In doing so, they lose all sense of time ('what time it is') and place ('where they are physically real'). According to Brown and Cairns (2004), the user must develop empathy and 'atmosphere' before reaching this level of total immersion. Atmosphere is defined as "the graphics, plot and sounds combining [ing] to create this feature" (Brown & Cairns, 2004: 1299). In other words, atmosphere has to do with the atmosphere that is created in the media product. It is important to point out that this does not necessarily imply that it has to be a realistic atmosphere.
A typology of immersion is relevant, since it is clear from the existing scientific literature that immersion can occur in various other ways: 'Spatial Immersion', 'Strategic immersion', 'Tactical Immersion', 'Narrative Immersion' are some of the types of immersion that differ substantially from each other (Moeller, 2017, Jennett et al., 2008).
Important to note is that immersion can also be achieved in totally unrealistic settings. For example, research shows that the Tetris game can work very naturally, not in a spatial way, but rather in a strategic way. The player of Tetris is so focused on the matching of the falling blocks that changing aspects in the environment of the player pass him / her.
Successful games have one aspect in common: they manage to involve people in the game, so that they are completely absorbed, so that they "lose" themselves in the world of gaming.
Strategic immersion occurs in a situation where an individual is fully engaged in focusing on achieving strategic goals, so that facts in the environment escape their attention. Research shows, for example, that some pupils may feel involved in carrying out the test assignment during a test, that they, for example, do not notice a fire alarm going on or not later than others. Even during the playing of strategic games, although these are not realistically spatially represented, this type of immersion can occur (Moeller, 2017)..
Tactical immersion strongly resembles strategic immersion and is found in existing literature, for example, with gamers who are in a multi-player game environment. Calleja (2007) defines this type of immersion as "both interaction with the formal rules of the game as well as the broader game environment and other players.
"Where strategic immersion is strongly focused on achieving the goals, tactical immersion is more about interaction with other players or the rules of the game in the hope of achieving the higher game goal (Mandal, 2013).
Spatial immersion usually occurs when the differences between the daily reality observed by us and a virtual environment are so small that the brain makes the user believe - or at least makes us feel as if he / she is "really" in that virtual environment. With spatial immersion, the individual succeeds in locating himself in a wider environment than the one visible on the screen (Bjørner et al., 2016). In order to achieve spatial immersion among users, technical aspects are particularly important.
It should be noted that a virtually perfect simulated environment in VR / 360 ° does not necessarily imply that spatial immersion occurs. Other aspects (such as a strong story or a goal to reach) should not be missed. A boring simulator that perfectly imitates a daily action will therefore not always lead to spatial immersion (Jennett et al., 2008).
Narrative immersion is experienced when the user becomes so fascinated by a story that he / she experiences an irresistible urge to discover the plot of the story and can no longer stop watching or playing.
Narrative immersion is of all types of immersion, the type that occurs with the most diverse media going from a compelling game to an exciting book (Mandal, 2013).
Not all users of media content are equally susceptible to immersion. A number of factors have already been identified in existing research that help explain why some people end up in this state very easily. For example, people who are susceptible to daydreaming and have an expansive and imaginative fantasy, are quicker in an immersive state (Jennett et al., 2008).
Immersion also has to do with emotional involvement and not everyone feels involved in every story or in the outcome of that story.
"You need some sort of emotional sensitivity to be able to connect to the game." (Cairns in Stuart, 2010)
In the following sections, we will go deeper into other closely related concepts of immersion that are used in literature and that all have in common that they gauge the viewer's / user's involvement in a content product (Brockmyer et al., 2009), but which also subtly differ from immersion. We discuss successively 'flow', 'presence' and 'dissociation'.
VR promises to create virtual worlds so real that the audience feels as if they are physically present in a digital space. That sensation of “being there” is called presence. Presence is partly achieved through the technology — the processing power, the graphics, the display, but it’s also achieved through the consistency and richness of the story-worlds we create.
When a user is in a state of flow, they are fully engaged and focused on the VR experience, and they are less aware of their physical surroundings or the passage of time. This can lead to a heightened sense of immersion and presence within the virtual world.
Flow can be achieved by creating an experience that is challenging but not overwhelming, providing clear goals and feedback, and ensuring that the user has a sense of control over their actions within the virtual environment. It can also be achieved by creating an experience that is visually and audibly stimulating, but not overwhelming, allowing the user to move smoothly and naturally within the virtual environment.
Dissociation in a virtual reality (VR) application refers to the degree to which the user is able to separate their perception and awareness of the virtual environment from their perception and awareness of their physical surroundings.
Dissociation can be achieved by creating a visually and audibly stimulating virtual environment, which can cause the user to become less aware of their physical surroundings and more fully immersed in the virtual world. Additionally, features such as head-mounted displays, motion tracking, and haptic feedback can also contribute to dissociation by providing a greater sense of immersion and presence within the virtual environment.