The Role of Personal Experience in Forming Spatial Presence in a Video Gaming Context

Advanced media technologies, such as video games, provide people with brand new media experiences including a sense of spatial presence - a sense of immersing in mediated environments. Many media and user factors that may induce spatial presence have been examined in previous studies. However, personal experience as one possible factor is still under examined. Based on the Two Level Process Model of Spatial Presence proposed by Wirth et al. (2007), the current study examined personal experience by connecting it with spatial situation models (SSMs), and comparing the effects of different types of personal experience on the process of constructing SSMs. The study proposed that people with more related prior experience are more likely to get stronger SSMs when they play video games, thus inducing higher levels of spatial presence. Furthermore, the congruence between people\u27s prior experience and current media experience will also influence the formation of spatial presence. Gaming skill was also included in the study as a moderator in the process, meaning the level of gaming skill affects the sense of spatial presence. By conducting a quasi experiment, 100 subjects were included in the study. The results partially supported the positive relationship between personal experience and SSMs. Furthermore, gaming skills and congruence were positively related to SSMs and the level of spatial presence, respectivel