The effect of solvation-desolvation process on the conformational change of poly(vinyl alcohol) in an extremely dilute aqueous solution during the repeated freezing-thawing treatment was investigated by a differential refractometer. It was found that the hydrodynamic volume of PVA decreased regularly and smoothly with the number of freezing-thawing cycles treatment increasing, as the intra-molecular entanglement points made the polymer chain contract, and even in a full compacted globule state, there were still some solvent molecules in the chain. The extraordinary phenomenon was successfully explained and treated by a quantitative theory in terms of accompanying solvation-desolvation process during the macromolecular chain having contracted. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.