Analysis of Break in Presence During Game Play Using a Linear Mixed Model

Abstract

Breaks in presence (BIP) are those moments during virtual environment (VE) exposure in which participants become aware of their real world setting and their sense of presence in the VE becomes disrupted. In this study, we investigate participants' experience when they encounter technical anomalies during game play. We induced four technical anomalies and compared the BIP responses of a navigation mode game to that of a combat mode game. In our analysis, we applied a linear mixed model (LMM) and compared the results with those of a conventional regression model. Results indicate that participants felt varied levels of impact and recovery when experiencing the various technical anomalies. The impact of BIPs was clearly affected by the game mode, whereas recovery appears to be independent of game mode. The results obtained using the LMM did not differ significantly from those obtained using the general regression model; however, it was shown that treatment effects could be improved by consideration of random effects in the regression model.