Presence can be defined as a psychological state in which individuals experience a mediated environment as if they were physically situated within it (Schubert et al., 2001; Slater & Steed, 2000; Steuer, 1992). The formation of this state relies on cognitive and emotional responses to mediated content, during which individuals subconsciously compare and integrate ambiguous memories with the mediated stimuli. In this process, memory models are updated, and mismatched information is suppressed, thereby reconciling discrepancies between memory and mediated input. Ultimately, the virtual and the real are psychologically equated, giving rise to a sense of presence (Sheridan, 1999).
Nostalgia, by contrast, is an affective state triggered when memories of familiar elements from the past are evoked (Boren, 2016). Yet such memories are not entirely accurate reconstructions of lived reality; rather, they are often subject to subconscious modification or even fabrication.
Presence and nostalgia share important commonalities. Both are psychologically constructed experiences that emphasize subjective perception over objective fact. Both involve the mental re-presentation of reality, and both depend on the suppression or modification of incongruent information. In this sense, they are actively constructed meanings— “as-if-real” sensations generated by the mind (Lee, 2004). Their primary distinction lies in temporal orientation: nostalgia is grounded in past lived experiences, whereas presence is more closely tied to embodied immediacy within a virtual environment.
Building on this parallel, nostalgia may be reinterpreted through the lens of presence. When ambiguous memories of past familiar experiences (as mediated through reality, film, or VR environments) overlap with present mediated stimuli, individuals subconsciously revise or reconstruct those memories. As a result, past memory and present virtual content (e.g., a VR experience) are psychologically equated, simultaneously triggering nostalgic affect and presence (Lee, 2004). This convergence produces the sensation of “being in the past,” highlighting VR’s unique capacity to maximize the nostalgic experience.