To Look or to Listen: Evaluating Visual and Auditory Contributions to the Cognitive Restoration Effect

Emfield, Adam G.; Neider, Mark

doi:10.1167/13.9.1072

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Importantly, although many studies on environmental complexity have focused on the visual domain, environments offer multisensory experiences which may impact cognitive processing as well as affective responses and behavior ( Brambilla and Maffei, 2006 ; Wais and Gazzaley, 2011 ; Emfield and Neider, 2013 ; Marin and Leder, 2013 ), and because the processing of information from different sensory modalities changes with age, showing for example a more facilitating effect on attentional performance of multisensory stimuli ( Laurienti et al, 2006 ; Setti et al, 2011 ), future studies should take into account multiple sensory domains when studying the interaction of older people with their environment.…”

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confidence: 99%

Complexity As Key to Designing Cognitive-Friendly Environments for Older People

Cassarino

Setti

2016

Front. Psychol.

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The 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.

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