Psychophysiological Effects of a Natural Forest Environment on Chinese University Students Aged 19-25 Years

ABSTRACT Recall of natural environments evokes human psychophysiological response, there is a lack of systematic, comprehensive analysis in existing research. Moreover, the limited experimental conditions lead to various laboratory research, and more field studies are needed. Employing the field research design and relative environmental psychology methods, this research investigates physical and psychological indexes changes of 60 Chinese university students aged 19–25, which include positive affect (PA), negative affect (NA), heart rate (HR), heart-rate variability (HRV), concentration (Pa), and relaxation (Pm), and regards the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in China as the experimental site. This study evaluates the psychophysiological effects of the natural forest environment on participates and explores the overall psychophysiological changes, and verifies the positive effect of the natural forest environment on university students. The main findings indicated that the natural forest environment was beneficial for increasing positive affect, decreasing negative affect, affecting HR, and increasing HRV, Pa and Pm. This study adds some basic evidence to a growing theoretical literature emphasizing the role of natural forest environment in psychophysiological restoration.