Complexity as key to designing cognitive-friendly environments for older people

dc.contributor.authorCassarino, Marica
dc.contributor.authorSetti, Annalisa
dc.contributor.funderUniversity College Corken
dc.date.accessioned2016-10-05T11:01:48Z
dc.date.available2016-10-05T11:01:48Z
dc.date.issued2016-08-30
dc.description.abstractThe lived environment is the arena where our cognitive skills, preferences, and attitudes come together to determine our ability to interact with the world. The mechanisms through which lived environments can benefit cognitive health in older age are yet to be fully understood. The existing literature suggests that environments which are perceived as stimulating, usable and aesthetically appealing can improve or facilitate cognitive performance both in young and older age. Importantly, optimal stimulation for cognition seems to depend on experiencing sufficiently stimulating environments while not too challenging. Environmental complexity is an important contributor to determining whether an environment provides such an optimal stimulation. The present paper reviews a selection of studies which have explored complexity in relation to perceptual load, environmental preference and perceived usability to propose a framework which explores direct and indirect environmental influences on cognition, and to understand these influences in relation to aging processes. We identify ways to define complexity at different environmental scales, going from micro low-level perceptual features of scenes, to design qualities of proximal environments (e.g., streets, neighborhoods), to broad geographical areas (i.e., natural vs. urban environments). We propose that studying complexity at these different scales will provide new insight into the design of cognitive-friendly environments.en
dc.description.sponsorshipUniversity College Cork (Strategic Research Fund Postgraduate Scholarship 2014)en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.articleid1329
dc.identifier.citationCassarino, M. and Setti, A. (2016) ‘Complexity as key to designing cognitive-friendly environments for older people’, Frontiers in Psychology, 7. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01329en
dc.identifier.doi10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01329
dc.identifier.endpage1329-12en
dc.identifier.issn1664-1078
dc.identifier.journaltitleFrontiers in Psychologyen
dc.identifier.startpage1329-1en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/3155
dc.identifier.volume7en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherFrontiers Mediaen
dc.rights© 2016 Cassarino and Setti. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original authors or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.en
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en
dc.subjectAgingen
dc.subjectEnvironmental preferenceen
dc.subjectUsabilityen
dc.subjectPerceptual loaden
dc.subjectCognitionen
dc.subjectEnvironmental complexityen
dc.titleComplexity as key to designing cognitive-friendly environments for older peopleen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
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