The impacts of Rouse spring, Fraenkel spring, and one kind of finitely extensible nonlinear elastic spring (FENE-PM spring) on the surface tension-induced retraction of a polymer ellipsoid in a matrix were compared using dissipative particle dynamics. Using the same spring constant, obvious differences among the three kinds of springs were found. A fast retraction process was observed from the hard Fraenkel spring, a slow process from the soft Rouse spring, and an intermediate process from the FENE-PM spring. The effects of varying the spring constant and the chain length were also investigated. The results indicate that the influence of increasing spring hardness for a given spring type was significant; whereas, the influence of chain length was minor after five bonds were reached. The effects of varying the FENE-PM r(m) parameter were also studied to provide a reliable value for this study. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 48: 2484-2489, 2010