Towards Techno-Psychological Immersion: A Narrative Literature Review of Immersion and Its Related Concepts

Abstract

Immersion is re-trending interdisciplinary topic in academic research due to new digital innovations, such as augmented reality smart glasses. Immersion is, however, still criticized as being a vague concept which should be clarified. For instance, immersion can be analyzed from both psychological and technological perspectives, yet many studies solely focus on one aspect while neglecting the other. Moreover, technological immersion and immersive technologies can be incorrectly used as synonyms. Thus, in this study, we conducted a narrative literature review of selected articles on immersion. As a result, we present our summary, which includes four sense stimulators (visual, auditory, haptic, and olfactory) of technological immersion and three dimensions (spatial, narrative, and strategic) of psychological immersion. Also, we suggest that immersive technologies should be separated from technological immersion. Lastly, we propose a new perspective to immersion: techno-psychological immersion, which combines technological and psychological viewpoints of immersion.