• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.299-307
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• 2019

This study surveyed the general characteristics and forest use characteristics of forest visitors, the healing power of natural environments and Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS) to find out whether humans can feel the healing effects of natural environments. The target area of this study was the natural environments of Bunseong Mountain in Gimhae, Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea. A total of 50 questionnaires were analyzed. Female visitors and those aged between 40s to 60s accounted for 62% and over 70% respectively. All the surveyed respondents answered 'yes' to the question about the healing effects of Bunseong Mountain and natural environments, and 84% of them answered that they can get 'psychological and physical healing' in Bunseong Mountain. Many respondents chose oxygen, sunlight, and landscape as a healing factor. To the questions about the specific form or conditions of the natural environments that have the healing effects, those who answered 'forest' was the highest (72%), and they described thickness of forests, gentle slope and clean air as their conditions. The average score of the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS) using a 7-point Likert scale was 5.14. The results of this study indicate that respondents perceive Bunseong Mountain as a restorative environment and think that they can enjoy the healing effects of Bunseong Mountain and natural environments.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.98 no.1
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• pp.88-93
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• 2009

The overall purpose of this study was to figure out psycho-physiological variations in human bodies according to observing visual images of forests. To collect data, the authors employed 9 views each in three different environments such as cities, forests, and landscape which combines a forest with water. The experiment was conducted by showing total 27 images to 30 visitors to measure the subjects' changes of alpha waves of EEG(electroencephalogram). As measures of psychological impact of the views, PRS(Perceived Restorativeness Scale) and PANAS(Positive and Negative Affect Schedule) were used. The results of the data analyses indicated that the views of landscape with a forest and water influenced most highly on subjects' psycho-physiological responses.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.94-104
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• 2017

With the recent increasing interest in preventive medicine, observation has been made regarding the positive relationship between a routinized place that includes activity and health improvement. This study evaluates the effective value of a designed landscape for seeing a healing environment and sees the difference of the effective value of classified physical settings regarding Evidence Based Design. Therefore, the study evaluates the perceived restorativeness scale of Cheonggyceheon's 1.5km section and five type settings in the same section regarding how much it works as a healthy urban park. The research methodology used to study sub-settings' and the research site's restoration effects was observation and questionnaires. A PRS (Perceived Restorativeness Scale) questionnaire survey was the research tool employed. The study drew two major results. Firstly, PRS 6.12 is the score of the whole research site, so the study identifies that Cheonggycheon has a mental fatigue restoration function. Secondly, the sub-setting named 'Near Sidewall' was the most attention restorative, according to the ANOVA results. In conclusion, this study suggests significant information support regarding the reasons for creating green areas in urban settings by identifying a particular designed healing sit.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.68-76
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• 2013

Effortful directed attention becomes fatigued if it is demanded by environment. Kaplan and Kaplan's Attention Restoration Theory (ART) proposes that the fatigued directed attention can be restored by a restorative landscape. The four restorative components are being away, fascination, extent, and compatibility. The restorative effect of landscape has been mainly investigated in terms of nature vs. urban dichotomy, although ART acknowledges that various types of landscapes can induce restorative effect. The purpose of this study is to examine whether sense of place of landscape has an influence on the restorative effect, and how the effect relates to the visiting experience. This study was performed in An-Ap-Ji with 200 Korean visitors who participated in the questionnaire survey. Hartig et al.'s PRS (Perceived Restorativeness Scale) was used as the research instrument to measure the restorative quality. The Analysis results are summarized as: 1) PRS was a very reliable measurement for Koreans' assessment of traditional landscape. Especially, the factor analysis produced four restorative components which fully supported ART. 2) The sense of place of landscape was found to have a positive influence on the restorative effect. 3) Landscape beauty was also discovered to be influential in the restoration even though the effect of beauty was lower than that of the sense of place. 4) Among the four restorative components, three components (fascination, escape, compatibility) influenced both visiting satisfaction and revisit intention, where the order of the relevant importance was fascination, escape, and compatibility. Based on the results, it was suggested that PRS should be used in landscape restoration research in Korea in order to re-examine its' reliability. It was also proposed that more research should be directed to investigate the relationship between the sense of place and the restorative effect of landscape.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.277-291
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• 2020

Background and objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of visitors' positive emotions on satisfaction and loyalty with the perception of restorative environment of a healing garden created in an urban agriculture expo. Methods: The psychological indicators to the images of the healing garden were analyzed by the visitors' demographic variables and the three factors of plant cultivation activity level: plant cultivation experience, plant preference, and plant-related event. Results: Between age groups and occupational groups, significant differences were found statistically. The Perceived Restorativeness Scale(PRS) showed significantly differences between age groups in repose, fascination and legibility. The Positive Affect & Negative Affect Schedule(PANAS) showed statistically significant differences between age groups in positive emotions. In addition, we investigated the correlation between the PANAS and the three factors of plant cultivation experience level, the four factors of the PRS, satisfaction and loyalty. The three factors of plant cultivation experience level, the four factors of the PRS, satisfaction and loyalty showed a positive correlation with positive emotions and were inversely correlated with negative emotions significantly. Multiple regression analysis with dummy variables was conducted to examine the effects of plant cultivation activity level, attention restoration, and the PANAS on healing garden visitors' satisfaction and loyalty. As a result, among the four factors of the PRS, fascination and positive affectivity were significant variables that affect healing garden visitors' satisfaction and loyalty. Conclusion: The results indicated that the higher the attention restoration of visitors due to the fascination of the healing garden and the higher their positive affectivity and the more they have plant-related memories, the higher their impact on healing garden visitors' satisfaction and loyalty. Therefore, fascinating natural environments or greenery landscapes like healing gardens where people can contact plants would reduce negative emotions such as anger and sadness but to increase positive emotions such as pleasure, joy and satisfaction.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.15-29
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the exhibition displays and events of the Agro-healing Experience Hall in the Agricultural Technology Exhibition 2018 on satisfaction and revisit intention of visitors. A survey was conducted on visitors of the Agro-healing Experience Hall and the responses of 274 visitors excluding 26 cases with inappropriate responses were analyzed. For psychological measurement, the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS), Profile of Mood States (POMS), level of plant gardening experience, satisfaction and loyalty were measured. There was a significant difference among age groups in all four factors of the PRS (repose, fascination, coherence, and legibility). In the case of education level, there was a significant difference in the three factors (repose, fascination, and legibility). In addition, average monthly income showed a significant difference among groups in the two factors (fascination and coherence). As a result of analyzing the mood states of visitors for the exhibition events of the Agro-healing Experience Hall, there was a significant difference among age groups only in the case of vigor (p < .05). As a result of analyzing the correlation between the level of plant gardening activities (3 factors) and PRS (4 factors) in the exhibition events of the Agro-healing Experience Hall, plant preference tendency and plant-related event showed a high positive correlation of 0.5 or more with repose of the PRS factors. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to investigate the effects of the level of plant gardening activities, PRS and POMS on the satisfaction and loyalty of visitors. As a result, it was found that in terms of relative explanatory power over independent variables affecting satisfaction and revisit intention, fascination had the greatest effect, followed by vigor, fatigue, and occupation (company employee). The results of this study suggest that exhibition events of the Agro-healing Experience Hall affect repose, fascination or vigor of visitors, and thus can be used positively to increase satisfaction and revisit intention of visitors.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.333-340
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• 2019

This study was conducted to find out the effects of plant cultivation activities in the village gardening program hosted by Gyeonggi-do on the psychology and physiology of participants. This study conducted a survey on 20 villagers aged 57.70±9.23 on average and collected their saliva before Session 1 and after the final Session 10. The experiment was conducted by carrying out the village gardening program once a week for total 10 weeks. Psychological assessment was conducted by measuring the level of plant cultivation experience, four elements (repose, fascination, coherence, legibility) of the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS) and stress levels, and also conducting the Wilcoxon paired signed ranks test. As the result of comparatively analyzing the saliva collected before and after the program, the total cortisol level, which is a stress hormone, decreased with statistical significance after the program (t=14.521, p<.001). The level of plant cultivation activities increased with statistical significance after the program, and the PRS increased with statistical significance in the three elements of repose, fascination and legibility excluding coherence. In addition, as the result of examining the change in the stress level of participants with the sum of all item scores, it was found that the stress level decreased with statistical significance (p<.05) from 17.65 points to 15.30 points after the program. Hence, plant cultivation activities in the village community have positive effects such as attention restoration or stress relief. In addition, the activities can also contribute to mental connection and healthcare of residents.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.9-23
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• 2024

This study investigates the physiological and psychological effects of a nature-based outdoor activity program in an environment reflecting the characteristics of forest and coastal areas on 30 firefighters (average age: 40.4 ± 9.8 years) who are frequently exposed to dangerous situations. Blood pressure, pulse pressure, and heart rate variability were used as physiological measurement indicators, and the Korean versions of PANAS (positive affect and negative affect schedule), WEMWBS (Warwick-Edinburgh mental well-being scale), and PRS (perceived restorativeness scale) were used as psychological measurement indicators. For four days and three nights, the participants experienced programs at Hallyeohaesang Nature Center and the surrounding mountains, seas, and islands, utilizing forest resources such as trekking on forest trails, walking barefoot, taking aromatic footbaths, meditating in forest oxygen domes, and lying on relaxation chairs, and programs utilizing marine resources such as taking a boat to an island, walking on forest trails with seascape views, and sailing on a yacht. Participants' systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure decreased, and participants' positive emotions increased and negative emotions decreased after the program. There was a statistically significant increase in mental well-being and perceived restorative environment. Through this study, it was found that nature-based outdoor activity programs based on forest and marine resources are effective in physiological and psychological stability of firefighters. It is hoped that the results of this study will be applied to other high-risk workers for PTSD, who have high stress levels, by combining forest healing and marine healing, and expanding the scope and diversity of programs in more diverse environments and conditions.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.217-226
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• 2024

Manufacturing workers face increased fatigue and stress due to environmental factors in workplace such as noise and vibration. Addressing this issue requires creating conducive rest spaces; however, the existing conditions of rest spaces in manufacturing workplace are subpar and lack sufficient scholarly evidence. This study investigated the effect of nature-based rest spaces on the physical and emotional recovery from fatigue on manufacturing workers. Three manufacturing complexes with nature-friendly rest spaces were selected, and 63 manufacturing workers participated in the study. The measurement tools included the Multidimensional Fatigue Scale (MFS) for fatigue levels, physiological indicators (blood pressure and heart rate), and emotional indicators (Zuckerman Inventory of Personal Reaction Scale; ZIPERS, Perceived Restorativeness Scale; PRS, Profile of Mood States; POMS and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory; STAI). The study compared recovery levels during a 7-minute rest between a space without plants and a space with natural elements. The results indicated a significant reduction in systolic and diastolic blood pressure of participants in green rest spaces compared with those in conventional rest spaces. Regarding fatigue levels, green rest spaces showed a decrease in systolic blood pressure in the middle-fatigue and high-fatigue groups. Positive feelings increased in green spaces, whereas negative emotions decreased, suggesting that short breaks in nature-friendly environments effectively promote workers' physical and emotional recovery. Furthermore, this study emphasizes the importance of green space in various work environments to promote well-being in workers.