Abstract
Withdrawal of land from agricultural production is creating possibilities for reafforestation in several areas of Europe. Reafforestation can serve recreational as well as ecological goals. The present study considers the effects of two ecologically significant forest design characteristics, accessibility and vegetation density, on mood, an outcome relevant to recreational planning. It simultaneously addresses the more general question of how changes in mood correspond to movement through an environment. The two forest design variables were manipulated both between and within subjects in a two (high accessibility vs interrupted accessibility) by two (dense vs half-open vegetation) by four (consecutive forest sections) design. The experimental manipulations combined sets of sequential photographic slides with verbal descriptions regarding aspects of accessibility (i.e. presence vs absence of a path, passableness, possibilities for orientation). Subjects (n=98) were randomly sampled residents of Leiden, recruited by telephone and screened for prior hiking experience. All provided seven affective appraisals for two preliminary recreational area sections and then the four experimental forest sections. The affective appraisals could be interpreted in terms of arousal and pleasure dimensions of mood. Arousal and pleasure scores were both affected by the accessibility manipulations in keeping with expectations while the manipulations of vegetation density were somewhat less influential.