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作者

Chang Li;Changan Sun;Minkai Sun;Yu Yuan;Pengcheng Li

来源

URBAN FORESTRY & URBAN GREENING,Vol.57,Issue1,Article 126865

语言

英文

关键字

Forest therapy;Brightness;Psycho-physiological responses;Stress recovery;Immersive virtual environment;Well-being

作者单位

School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, China;School of Education, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, China;School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, China;School of Education, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, China

摘要

Although previous studies have shown that both forest and natural light exposure can significantly affect psycho-physiological responses, how different natural light levels influence stress recovery efficacy in forest environments has not been discussed yet. A pretest-posttest design was used to explore the influence of varying brightness levels on stress recovery effect in a virtual forest environment. Six immersive virtual environments (IVE) stimuli were generated from the lightest to the darkest through virtual reality simulation software. A total of 120 participants viewed the IVE using head-mounted display. Physiological and psychological responses and perceived environmental features were evaluated. The results of the present study confirmed previous findings that bright sunlight scenes (i.e., the lightest, lighter, light) allay stress more effectively than the darkest night scenes in the virtual forest. Another noteworthy finding is that dark scenes, such as daybreak without sunlight but with a little brightness, also has this property. An unexpected finding was that exposure to the natural light of medium-brightness (i.e., lighter, light, dark) in the virtual forest could significantly reduce the stress of the participants, compared to overly bright (i.e., the lightest level) or overly dark (i.e., the darkest level) levels. In addition, this study also found that perceived environmental features (i.e., maintenance, visibility, accessibility, variety, and perceived safety) and stress recovery were associated with different levels of brightness in the simulated forest environment. The results of this study contribute to existing forest therapy theory and offer insights for follow-up research to explore forest therapy and bright light therapy.