ANNUAL CONGRESS 2025

How Sensory Environment and Playfulness Influence Cognitive Health of Older Adults: Planning Empathetic, Ability-Building and Inclusive Public Housing Neighbourhoods in Singapore

Not scheduled

20m

Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul

Oral Track 17 | PUBLIC SPACE

Speaker

Dr Zdravko Trivic (Department of Architecture, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore)

Description

Providing opportunities for rich and meaningful interactions with physical and social environment is crucial for supporting the physical, psychological and social well-being of people of all ages, and particularly the vulnerable populations, such as older adults. Associated declines in sensory and cognitive capacities that occur as people age affect profoundly older adults’ quality of life and everyday functioning (Kwon et al., 2015). This paper outlines an interdisciplinary study that investigated the effects of sensory environment and playfulness on cognitive health of older adults living in densely built and populated public housing communities in Singapore.

Here, sensory environment refers to sensory richness of any physical setting and its capacity to trigger bodily, emotional and mental reactions in users and encourage interactions with space and among users. On the other hand, playfulness is a psychosocial and behavioural construct referring to a personality trait, which enables a person to translate any situation or activity as playful and enjoyable (Proyer et al., 2018; Van Vleet and Feeney, 2015). Our hypothesis was that sensory environment and playfulness are interrelated mechanisms that can affect cognitive health of older adults positively, including reducing depressive symptoms and slowing down cognitive decline. Moreover, we explored how users’ visual perception and viewing behaviour can further enrich our understanding of sensory environment and playfulness, and older adults’ interaction with their familiar built and social environment.

The study had two phases. In the first phase, we employed a cross-sectional survey and path analysis to investigate the potential effects of exposure to sensory environment and playfulness on health-related variables (self-rated memory, cognition) through intermediates (depressive symptoms, loneliness, at-homeness and neighbourhood cohesion), using available validated scales. We conducted surveys with 400 healthy adults aged 55 and above in 20 typical public housing neighbouroods in Singapore. In the second phase, which is the focus of this paper, we conducted a small mobile eye-tracking study, which involved naturalistic walks through the neighbourhood followed by interviews with 20 survey participants from 4 selected neighbourhoods.

Path analyses revealed that sensory environment and playfulness are important factors for cognitive health of older adults at both neighbourhood and individual levels. While no statistically significant direct associations were found between sensory environment and playfulness, statistically significant correlations indicate that both sensory environment and playfulness can improve cognitive health through increased neighbourhood cohesion, sense of at-homeness, and decreased loneliness and depression. The eye-tracking study further explained the level of multi-sensory interaction and the reasons behind such engagement with the familiar spaces, beyond visual attention. The results reaffirmed the need for better understanding of the mechanisms of multi-sensory engagements and playful behaviour towards better cognitive health, in order to inform planning of residential neighbourhood designs in high-density contexts that are healthful, ability-building, empathetic and inclusive.

References

Kwon, H. J., Kim, J. S., Kim, Y. J., Kwon, S. J., and Yu, J. N. (2015). ‘Sensory impairment and health-related quality of life’. Iranian Journal of Public Health, 44(6), pp. 772-782. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741- 6612.2012.00627.x.

Proyer, R., Gander, F., Bertenshaw, E., and Bauer, K. (2018). ‘The positive relationships of playfulness with indicators of health, activity, and physical fitness’. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1440. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01440.

Van Vleet, M., and Feeney, B. C. (2015). ‘Play behavior and playfulness in adulthood’. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 9(11), pp. 630-643. doi: https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1111/spc3.12205.