Epistemic engagement among higher education learners often involves cognitive appraisal operations which generate emotional processes. This study aims to develop and validate a multidimensional "Emotional Presence Scale" (EPS) to measure learners' experience of emotion due to cognitive appraisal in epistemic processes. Based on the cognitive-motivational-relational theory of emotion, the EPS was developed and validated through a three-phase process of theoretical conceptualisation, item generation and psychometric analysis. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of data on a multi-institutional sample of Japanese universities (N = 361) produced a four-dimensional structure of emotional presence: interest-curiosity, emotional awareness, expression management, and emotional regulation. The EPS has adequate psychometric properties and is meaningfully related to external variables of task value, satisfaction, and motivation. The findings indicate that the EPS could be a desirable tool to measure emotional presence in higher educational settings where epistemic engagement is crucial.