Multitasking, Presence & Self-Presence on the Wii
Rabindra Ratan, M Cruz, Peter Vorderer · 2007
Previous research has shown that presence, self-presence, and multitasking all affect task performance, but these mechanisms have been tested in separate experiments. This study is one of the first to concurrently examine how the feeling of presence and self-presence while playing Nintendo Wii affects the ability to perform on various multitasking tasks. In a 2 x 2 between-subjects design, participants played Wii Tennis either with a Mii they created to resemble themselves or with a generic Mii. To make participants self-aware of their virtual or real selves, they were told that they were videotaped either on the screen or both on-screen and in the physical room. These two manipulations, Mii similarity and self-awareness, were found to significantly affect the participants’ feelings of self-presence or presence, respectively, in the expected directions. These manipulations also significantly affected participants’ behavioral performance on various multitasking tasks, including memory encoding and retrieval, and problem solving. These data demonstrate the importance of presence management and strategic avatar choice in multitasking scenarios.