Ageing- and dementia-friendly design: theory and evidence from cognitive psychology, neuropsychology and environmental psychology can contribute to design guidelines that minimise spatial disorientation

Many older people, both with and without dementia, eventually move from their familiar home environments into unfamiliar surroundings, such as sheltered housing or care homes. Age-related declines in wayfinding skills can make it difficult to learn to navigate in these new, unfamiliar environments....

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Pazzaglia, F. (Author), Wiener, J.M (Author)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:View Fulltext in Publisher
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020 |a 16124782 (ISSN) 
245 1 0 |a Ageing- and dementia-friendly design: theory and evidence from cognitive psychology, neuropsychology and environmental psychology can contribute to design guidelines that minimise spatial disorientation 
260 0 |b Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH  |c 2021 
856 |z View Fulltext in Publisher  |u https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-021-01031-8 
520 3 |a Many older people, both with and without dementia, eventually move from their familiar home environments into unfamiliar surroundings, such as sheltered housing or care homes. Age-related declines in wayfinding skills can make it difficult to learn to navigate in these new, unfamiliar environments. To facilitate the transition to their new accommodation, it is therefore important to develop retirement complexes and care homes specifically designed to reduce the wayfinding difficulties of older people and those with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Residential complexes that are designed to support spatial orientation and that compensate for impaired navigation abilities would make it easier for people with dementia to adapt to their new living environment. This would improve the independence, quality of life and well-being of residents, and reduce the caregivers’ workload. Based on these premises, this opinion paper considers how evidence from cognitive psychology, neuropsychology and environmental psychology can contribute to ageing- and dementia-friendly design with a view to minimising spatial disorientation. After an introduction of the cognitive mechanisms and processes involved in spatial navigation, and the changes that occur in typical and atypical ageing, research from the field of environmental psychology is considered, highlighting design factors likely to facilitate (or impair) indoor wayfinding in complex buildings. Finally, psychological theories and design knowledge are combined to suggest ageing- and dementia-friendly design guidelines that aim to minimise spatial disorientation by focusing on residual navigation skills. © 2021, The Author(s). 
650 0 4 |a aged 
650 0 4 |a Aged 
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650 0 4 |a architecture 
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650 0 4 |a Cognition 
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650 0 4 |a confusion 
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650 0 4 |a dementia 
650 0 4 |a Dementia 
650 0 4 |a Dementia 
650 0 4 |a dementia friendly design 
650 0 4 |a Dementia-friendly design 
650 0 4 |a environmental psychology 
650 0 4 |a environmental psychology 
650 0 4 |a Environmental Psychology 
650 0 4 |a Environments 
650 0 4 |a evidence based medicine 
650 0 4 |a geriatric patient 
650 0 4 |a home care 
650 0 4 |a housing 
650 0 4 |a human 
650 0 4 |a Humans 
650 0 4 |a independence 
650 0 4 |a neuropsychology 
650 0 4 |a Neuropsychology 
650 0 4 |a nursing home 
650 0 4 |a Nursing Homes 
650 0 4 |a quality of life 
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650 0 4 |a spatial orientation 
650 0 4 |a Spatial orientation 
650 0 4 |a theory 
650 0 4 |a Wayfinding 
650 0 4 |a wellbeing 
650 0 4 |a workload 
700 1 |a Pazzaglia, F.  |e author 
700 1 |a Wiener, J.M.  |e author 
773 |t Cognitive Processing