Virtual Chess: Meaning Enhances Users' Sense of Presence in Virtual Environments

Abstract Presence refers to the sensation of going into a computer-simulated environment. We investigated whether presence and memory accuracy are affected by the meaningfulness of the information encountered in the virtual environment (VE). Non-chess players and three levels of chess players studied meaningful and meaningless chess positions in VEs. They rated the level of presence experienced in each and took an old-new recognition memory test. Non-chess players reported no difference in presence for meaningful compared with meaningless positions, yet even weak chess players reported feeling more present with meaningful compared with meaningless positions. Thus, only modest levels of expertise were needed to enhance presence. In contrast, tournament-level chess-playing ability was required before meaningful chess positions were remembered significantly more accurately than meaningless chess positions. Tournament players' memory accuracy was very high for meaningful positions but was the same as non-chess players for meaningless positions. Meaning did not significantly influence memory accuracy for weak chess players. Our memory results replicate and extend the findings of Chase and Simon (1973). Out presence results show how cognitive factors inherent in the user can influence the quality of the human-computer interface. Practical implications are discussed.