Edit blindness is not related to immersion and presence in Hollywood movies

The concept of presence describes participants’ feelings of “being there” – in a mediated setting such as a virtual environment or a Hollywood movie. Consistently, it has been reported that higher levels of immersion (i.e. providing richer information) are related to higher presence levels. Immersion and presence are measured, asking participants to report their state of mind. The present study links presence to edit blindness – a concept also known as being sensitive to the richness of information (filmic cut detection is impaired for films with a soundtrack compared to films without a soundtrack). We investigated whether edit blindness might be considered a behavioral correlate of presence or immersion. Participants watched short excerpts of Hollywood movies (with vs. without a soundtrack) in two experimental sessions; they were asked (1) to detect filmic cuts in one session and (2) to rate experienced immersion and presence after each clip in another session. While audiovisual films elicited a reduced cut detection performance, longer cut detection times, and higher presence ratings, the behavioral measures of edit blindness were related neither with immersion nor presence ratings. We thus conclude that the self-reported and the behavioral measures of media reception are not readily equivalent.