The Relationship between Presence and Performance in Virtual Simulation Training

The use of virtual simulation-based training continues to expand, as organizations explore alternative methods to reduce the cost of training. While virtual simulation has been empirically validated to be effective in the transfer of skills to the live environment, what is still unknown is what effect, if any, that an individual’s sense of presence in the simulation has on their performance. In this paper, we examine the relationship between presence and performance while performing a psychomotor task in a virtual environment. The independent variables were visual display and expertise level. The dependent variables were presence and performance. We found evidence of a moderate relationship between the degree of presence experienced in the simulation and an individual’s performance over three training trials. Results of this study may inspire future research to investigate whether higher presence in virtual simulation results in higher performance.