Usage Matters: The Role of Frequency, Duration, and Experience in Presence Formation in Social Virtual Reality

Paper Title

Usage Matters: The Role of Frequency, Duration, and Experience in Presence Formation in Social Virtual Reality

Publication Info

• Topic area: Behavioral predictors of presence in social virtual reality environments.
• Keywords: Social VR, presence, frequency, session duration, VR experience, spatial presence, social presence, self-presence, user behavior, immersive environments.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Existing research on presence in VR has primarily focused on technical features or short-term, controlled laboratory studies, leaving a gap in understanding how everyday usage behaviors influence presence in real-world social VR contexts.
• Significance: Understanding the behavioral predictors of presence can inform the design of more immersive and inclusive virtual environments, enhancing user satisfaction and outcomes in applications like education, therapy, and social connection.
• Motivation and related work: Prior studies have shown mixed results regarding the effects of usage frequency, session duration, and VR experience on presence. Most research has been conducted in artificial lab settings, which fail to capture the natural, voluntary, and long-term engagement patterns seen in social VR platforms like VRChat and Rec Room. This study aims to address these gaps by examining real-world usage behaviors.

Solution

• Proposed approach: The study investigates how usage intensity—measured as frequency, session duration, and years of VR experience—predicts overall presence and its spatial, social, and self-presence dimensions in social VR.
• Novelty:
  1. Provides large-scale, survey-based evidence linking behavioral usage patterns to presence across three core dimensions.
  2. Demonstrates that the effects of frequency and duration are consistent across gender and age, with no evidence of demographic moderation.
  3. Highlights interaction effects between usage variables, showing cumulative and synergistic impacts on presence.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Conducted an online survey with 295 active social VR users recruited via Prolific.
  • Measured frequency of use, session duration, and years of VR experience alongside validated scales for spatial, social, and self-presence.
  • Applied hierarchical multiple regression to assess main effects, interactions (e.g., frequency × duration), and demographic moderation (gender, age).

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Frequency (β = 0.201, p < 0.001) and session duration (β = 0.183, p < 0.001) were strong predictors of overall presence.
  • Interaction effects (e.g., frequency × duration, β = 0.150, p < 0.001) revealed that frequent and prolonged usage synergistically amplifies presence.
  • Years of VR experience had weaker or non-significant direct effects but interacted with frequency and duration to enhance presence.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • Demonstrates that everyday, voluntary usage behaviors in social VR predict presence more robustly than historical familiarity with VR.
  • Extends prior lab-based findings by showing cumulative effects of usage intensity in naturalistic settings.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Surveyed 295 users (72.9% male, 47.5% aged 25–34) with diverse VR usage patterns.
  • Measured presence using validated subscales for spatial, social, and self-presence.
  • Regression models explained significant variance in presence (R² = 0.117–0.139), with interaction terms adding incremental explanatory power.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Sample skewed toward younger, male, and European users, limiting generalizability.
  • Retrospective self-reports may be influenced by memory biases.
  • Future studies should integrate behavioral logs, explore mediating factors (e.g., flow, social connection), and validate findings in more diverse populations.

Summary

This study explores how usage intensity—frequency, session duration, and years of VR experience—shapes the sense of presence in social VR environments. Results show that frequency and duration are robust predictors of presence across spatial, social, and self dimensions, with interaction effects amplifying these relationships. Gender and age did not moderate these effects, suggesting consistency across demographic groups. The findings highlight the importance of sustained and frequent engagement for fostering immersive experiences and offer design insights for creating inclusive virtual environments that adapt to user behaviors.