The impact of visitor attributes on the spatial experience in exhibition halls with background music

The exhibition hall is public architectural space with diverse forms, which serves as an exceptional research environment for investigating spatial experience. As a potent auditory stimulus capable of evoking emotions effectively, music exerts influence on behavioral responses in different contexts. However, the existing literature on interior space design rarely integrates soundscape considerations. Therefore, this study aims to explore the impact of tourist attributes-such as music learning experience, listening frequency, exhibition visiting motivation, personality traits, and neuroticism-on spatial experiences based on music perception and interior layouts. The background music is categorized into five sound conditions based on mode and tempo: no music, medium tempo in major, medium tempo in minor, fast tempo in major, and slow tempo in major. Meanwhile, the exhibition space is classified into four categories according to its interior layout: axis space, scale contrast space, shape contrast space, and flow space. The result shows that in different spatial environment with different music background, tourist attributes have different effects on the subjective spatial perception.