Constructing a valid measure of presence and discovering the factors that contribute to presence have been much sought after goals of presence researchers and at times have generated controversy among them. This paper describes the results of principal-components analyses of Presence Questionnaire (PQ) data from 325 participants following exposure to immersive virtual environments. The analyses suggest that a 4-factor model provides the best fit to our data. The factors are Involvement, Adaptation/Immersion, Sensory Fidelity, and Interface Quality. Except for the Adaptation/Immersion factor, these factors corresponded to those identified in a cluster analysis of data from an earlier version of the questionnaire. The existence of an Adaptation/Immersion factor leads us to postulate that immersion is greater for those individuals who rapidly and easily adapt to the virtual environment. The magnitudes of the correlations among the factors indicate moderately strong relationships among the 4 factors. Within these relationships, Sensory Fidelity items seem to be more closely related to Involvement, whereas Interface Quality items appear to be more closely related to Adaptation/Immersion, even though there is a moderately strong relationship between the Involvement and Adaptation/Immersion factors.

These results are being used to develop an alert timing approach for a forward collision warning system intended to assist drivers in avoiding rear-end crashes with the vehicle ahead.

Three virtual environment (VE) constructs were studied and a model was generated to explain the relations among them. Data were gathered using the Immersive Tendency Questionnaire (ITQ), the Presence Questionnaire (PQ), and the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ). The model was tested and modified using structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques. The results showed that the original hypothesized model did not fit the data very well (which is typical), but after respecification the model showed good fit to the data. These results suggest that immersive tendency may have an effect upon simulator sickness and presence, and simulator sickness may have an effect upon presence.

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