We describe an experiment to assess the influence of body movements on pres
ence in a virtual environment. In the experiment 20 participants were to wa
lk through a virtual field of trees and count the trees with diseased leave
s. A 2 x 2 between-subjects design was used to assess the influence of two
factors on presence: tree height variation and task complexity. The field w
ith greater variation in tree height required participants to bend down and
look up more than in the lower variation tree height field. In the higher
complexity task participants were told to remember the distribution of dise
ased trees in the field as well as to count them. The results showed a sign
ificant positive association between reported presence and the amount of bo
dy movement - in particular, head yaw - and the extent to which participant
s bent down and stood up. There was also a strong interaction effect betwee
n task complexity and gender: Women in the more-complex task reported a muc
h lower sense of presence than in the simpler task. For applications in whi
ch presence is an important requirement, the research in this paper suggest
s that presence will be increased when interaction techniques are employed
that permit the user to engage in whole-body movement.