[This story from Psychology Today describes a recent study of four dimensions of presence and how they impact the objective and subjective success of small teams working together to solve 3D puzzles in a virtual environment. Note the call for expanded future research at the end. –Matthew]

[Image: Figure 2 from Massey et al. study: Scrambled Puzzle (on left) and Solved Puzzle (on right).]

Enhancing Team Performance in Virtual Reality Environments

The influence of presence on teamwork in collaborative virtual environments.

By Michael Hogan, Ph.D., a lecturer in psychology at the National University of Ireland, Galway
Reviewed by Margaret Foley
February 15, 2025

Key points

• Presence in collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) is key for effective teamwork.
• Immersion control significantly boosts both team performance and satisfaction.
• Voice and text communication equally support task coordination in CVEs.

A few years ago, my good friend Lukasz Porwol, leader of the eGovernment Unit at the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics at the University of Galway, invited me to experiment with his virtual reality (VR) environment. We were particularly interested in how teams might be able to use the VR space for virtual conferences of a different sort, specifically, conferences where teams would leverage VR affordances to engage in complex forms of systems thinking and applied system design work. It’s an area of research and application we hope to develop further, and my sense after working to facilitate teams online during the COVID-19 pandemic is that teams are increasingly ready to respond.

The recent work by Lukasz and his team also highlights the promising possibilities for virtual reality-driven serious communication. However, as organizations embrace remote work and the possibilities of increasingly complex forms of remote teamwork, the requirements and system designs supporting quality teamwork interactions increase. Ultimately, this implies the design of higher quality collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) that include the affordances team members need in order to work well together. In this context, the concept of “presence”—the feeling of “being there” in a shared virtual space—is one important factor that has captured the attention of researchers.

Over the years, studies have revealed that presence is multifaceted, and as noted by Massey and colleagues in a recent study, we can differentiate discrete dimensions of presence such as “immersion control,” “immersion sensory,” “absorption,” and “awareness.” Each of these dimensions of experience can play a slightly different role in how individuals communicate and collaborate during teamwork. Immersion control is a measure of the degree to which individuals can manage their focus and interactions within the virtual environment. Immersion sensory is the extent to which sensory experiences within the virtual environment (such as visual and auditory experiences) contribute to the feeling of being present in that space. Absorption reflects levels of engagement and concentration individuals experience while immersed in the virtual tasks. Awareness refers to the awareness of both self and others within the CVE, including awareness of the actions of fellow participants in real time.

The study by Massey and colleagues focused on the relationship between presence and team performance in a sample of 80 teams working together in CVEs, specifically, in Linden Lab’s Second Life, a 3D virtual world platform where participants’ avatars move around and interact with others and objects in the environment. The teams in the study consisted of either dyads (teams of two) or triads (teams of three), and each team was tasked with solving a series of 3D puzzles where they used their CVE tools to rotate nine 3D cubes to create a variety of different picture options. Teams were randomly assigned to different communication modalities, either voice or text-chat, and their goal when working together was to create as many different pictures as possible in 20 minutes. Across the full sample of 80 teams, 38 teams were assigned to the voice communication condition, and 42 teams were assigned to the text-chat condition. This randomization allowed Massey and colleagues to assess the effects of different communication modalities on presence and team performance relations.

Massey and colleagues measured presence at the individual level. Participants self-reported their experience across the four dimensions of presence: immersion control, immersion sensory, absorption, and awareness. The key outcome variable of interest in the study was team performance, measured both subjectively and objectively. Objective performance was measured in terms of both effectiveness (i.e., the total number of picture puzzles solved in 20 minutes) and efficiency (i.e., mean time to solve each puzzle). Subjective performance was measured by individual self-reports of teamwork satisfaction.

Massey and colleagues reported a number of interesting findings. First, although it was hypothesised that voice communication might be more beneficial than text-chat, communication modality (voice vs. text-chat) did not significantly influence the relationship between presence and team outcomes. This suggests that both communication modalities were equally useful in enabling task-related coordination.

Second, when Massey and colleagues examined the effects of presence on team performance, they identified some variation across the dimensions of presence. Most notably, higher immersion control had positive effects on all team performance outcomes, both objective and subjective. Absorption also had significant effects on team performance, but not exactly as predicted. Teams reporting higher levels of absorption solved fewer puzzles and took more time per puzzle solved; at the same time, they experienced higher levels of teamwork satisfaction. The other two dimensions of presence—immersion sensory and awareness—had no significant effect on team performance. Overall, in the specific platform and performance context Massey and colleagues examined, the findings indicate that some dimensions of presence are more important than others for effective collaboration. It will be interesting to explore these effects further, particularly given the significant strides that are being made in the design of CVEs and the nature of the teamwork tasks that might be possible to perform in these newly emerging CVEs.

The world of work is changing constantly. As virtual environments become increasingly integral to organizational processes, a better understanding of how team members experience presence can inform how we design CVEs to support team performance and other important aspects of the team experience, including cohesion and well-being. As the technology becomes increasingly available and user-friendly, research can move from the experimental lab environment to real-world work environments to examine how teams adapt to and leverage CVE technologies. Future research should also expand the range of team performance tasks that are the focus of experimental and applied research—for example, examining how teams import and use multiple computational, design, and decision-making tools while working together in CVEs. Also, given the rapid advancements in communication technology, examining how emerging modalities (e.g., integrated haptic feedback systems) affect presence and collaborative outcomes could yield critical insights. Understanding these human-technology interaction and teamwork dynamics will be pivotal as organizations increasingly rely on immersive technologies for collaboration.