Presence, Explicated

This article reviews previous literature on presence, with a particular focus on its conceptualization and typologies. It first compares various types of presence-related terms (e.g., telepresence, virtual presence, mediated presence, copresence, and presence) and suggests that of those terms the term presence works best for the systematic study of human interaction with media and simulation technologies. After an extensive explication process, presence is newly defined as “a psychological state in which virtual objects are experienced as actual objects in either sensory or nonsensory ways.” Three types of presence—physical, social, and self presence—are defined based on the general definition of presence and the corresponding domains of human experience. Finally, implications of the current explication to the study of presence are discussed.