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Place illusion and plausibility can lead to realistic behaviour in immersive virtual environments
Open accessAbstract
In this paper, I address the question as to why participants tend to respond realistically to situations and events portrayed within an immersive virtual reality system. The idea is put forward, based on the experience of a large number of experimental studies, that there are two orthogonal components that contribute to this realistic response. The first is 'being there', often called 'presence', the qualia of having a sensation of being in a real place. We call this place illusion (PI). Second, plausibility illusion (Psi) refers to the illusion that the scenario being depicted is actually occurring. In the case of both PI and Psi the participant knows for sure that they are not 'there' and that the events are not occurring. PI is constrained by the sensorimotor contingencies afforded by the virtual reality system. Psi is determined by the extent to which the system can produce events that directly relate to the participant, the overall credibility of the scenario being depicted in comparison with expectations. We argue that when both PI and Psi occur, participants will respond realistically to the virtual reality.
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“VEs provide the user with the sensation of being located within the environment, contributing to the psychological sense of presence or “being there” [20].”
From Examining the Use of Virtual Reality to Support Mindfulness Skills Practice in Mood and Anxiety Disorders: Mixed Methods Study (2024) · cites this paper as [20]
In the citing paper
“Recently, Slater [81] also argued that presence at least has two independent components: place illusion and plausibility.”
From A Meta-Analysis on the Relationship between Self-Reported Presence and Anxiety in Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Anxiety Disorders (2014) · cites this paper as [81]
In the citing paper
“Both place illusion and plausibility contribute to realistic responses in the virtual environment.”
From A Meta-Analysis on the Relationship between Self-Reported Presence and Anxiety in Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Anxiety Disorders (2014) · cites this paper as [81]
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Citations
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Cited by
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Enhancing Our Lives with Immersive Virtual Reality
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Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Slater, M.
- Affiliations
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Slater, Mel
- ORCID
- Slater, Mel
- Venue
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2009-12-12
- Volume
- 364
- Issue
- 1535
- Pages
- 3549-3557
- ISSN
- 0962-8436 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-2970
- PMC
- PMC2781884
- OpenAlex
- W2145839404
- Cited by
- 2,691
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 408 · 2025: 338 · 2024: 254 · 2023: 322 · 2022: 278 · 2021: 224 · 2020: 208 · 2019: 176 · 2018: 141 · 2017: 68 · 2016: 69 · 2015: 38 · 2014: 44 · 2013: 34 · 2012: 31
- FWCI
- 45.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Dipòsit Digital de la Universitat de Barcelona (Universitat de Barcelona) (acceptedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- RECERCAT (Consorci de Serveis Universitaris de Catalunya) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Flow Experience in Various Fields
- Keywords
- presence, immersive virtual reality, sensorimotor contingencies
- MeSH terms
- Behavior, Humans, Reality Testing, Space Perception, User-Computer Interface, Visual Perception
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