VEs enable people to experience, navigate and interact with virtual cues intuitively in real time. During this interaction, they often experience a sense of being in the VE that is referred to as presence. In order to be fully spatially present in the VE, the individual has to forget about the physical environment and accept the VE as the only reference frame (Riecke, 2003). In addition, the VE should be immersive and easy to use so that the participant does not pay attention to the equipment and experiences a sense of being there in the VE. Presence and learning are strongly related; increasing presence increases learning and performance (De Lucia et al., 2009).
Schubert, Friedmann, and Regenbrecht (2001) used a rating scale to assess presence in a 3D computer game. The ‘Igroup Presence Questionnaire’ (IPQ) comprises 14 items rated on a 7 point scale that ranges from -3 to 3 (Schubert et al., 2001). The IPQ consists of three subscales that measure different dimensions of presence and one additional general item that assesses the “sense of being here” (in the computer generated world I have a sense of “being there”). The subscale ‘Spatial Presence’ assesses the sense of being there in the VE (e.g. I had a sense of acting in the virtual space, rather than operating something from outside). The subscale ‘Involvement’ measures the attention devoted to the real environment and the VE (e.g. I was not aware of my real environment), and the subscale ‘Realness’ measures the reality judgment of the VE (e.g. how much did your experience in the virtual environment seem consistent with your real world experience?).