Engagement (General – Immersion)

What it measures

This scale, referred to by the original authors as immersion, measures how absorbed and focused a person's attention is on an experience or object, and is designed to be adaptable to a wide range of contexts. Petit, Javornik, and Velasco (2022) used it across three studies on how visual technologies enhance mental simulation of eating experiences, run with participants at business schools in France and the UK.

Response format

7-point semantic differential

Scale items

• not at all immersed / deeply immersed
• not at all absorbed / deeply absorbed
• my attention was not focused / my attention was focused

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Alphas were .86, .83, and .809 across Studies 1, 2, and 3 respectively (Petit 2023, personal correspondence; Petit, Javornik, and Velasco 2022, pp. 281, 283). Validity was not separately discussed. NOTE: the handbook gives this scale and the following entry ('Engagement (General – Attentional Focus)', from Kristofferson and Dunn 2023) the identical title 'Engagement (General)'; the parenthetical qualifiers here disambiguate the two distinct instruments — flagged for Gav's confirmation of the disambiguation wording. The blank in the stem should describe the focal event or object (e.g., 'viewing the food').

Citation

Petit, Olivia, Ana Javornik, and Carlos Velasco (2022), "We Eat First with Our (Digital) Eyes: Enhancing Mental Simulation of Eating Experiences via Visual-Enabling Technologies," Journal of Retailing, 98 (2), 277-293.

Keywords