INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF INDOOR VISUAL ENVIRONMENT AND SOUND ON OLDER ADULTS' EMOTIONS

As population aging intensifies, the influence of indoor environment on the mental health of the elderly is increasingly concerned. This study explored the effects of different audiovisual environments on older adults' emotions and environmental perceptions through a controlled experiment. The variables included 3 types of acoustic environments: noise, silent and music, combined with different combinations of wall color, indoor greenery and furniture density. 36 healthy older adults participated in the experiment to measure their emotions and environmental perceptions in different environments. The results showed that (1) visual and sound environments significantly affected older adults' emotions. Color having the stronger moderating effect on positive emotion, cold tones being the most effective in noise environments, and warmer tones being preferable in music environments. Greenery had a more prominent mitigating effect on negative emotions, with peak emotional benefits at 12% coverage. (2) The correlation between sound evaluation and emotion was stronger than that of visual evaluation, confirming the dominance of hearing in emotion regulation. (3) The multimodal interaction effect is significant. For example, cool-colored walls and medium greenery in the noise environment can effectively balance the negative acoustic environment effects, while warm colors are more conducive to positive emotions in the music environment. This study provides empirical evidence for age-friendly design. Future research could further explore the long-term effects of personalized environmental interventions.