Bridging Built Heritage and Cultural Meaning: Active Digital Information Seeking and Cultural–Cognitive Compensation in Historic Districts

Historic urban regeneration requires not only material conservation but also public understanding of the cultural meanings embedded in buildings, street networks, and local narratives. This study examines how active digital information seeking is associated with visitors’ perceived cultural–cognitive compensation during the interpretation of historic built environments, and how this support relates to cultural heritage experience evaluation and perceived heritage memory quality. An on-site survey of 316 digitally engaged visitors was conducted at Taiping Old Street in Changsha, China. Factor analyses, regression models, bootstrap indirect-association analyses, and non-parametric group comparisons were applied. Active digital information seeking was positively associated with cultural–cognitive compensation, cultural heritage experience evaluation, and perceived heritage memory quality. Cultural–cognitive compensation formed significant indirect associations with memory quality (B = 0.177, 95% CI [0.111, 0.252]) and experience evaluation (B = 0.143, 95% CI [0.084, 0.211]). No robust differences among primary digital tools remained after correction for multiple testing. The findings suggest that digital interpretation can function as a human-centered information layer connecting preserved physical heritage with historical context and visitor understanding. For intelligent heritage regeneration, digital tools should be spatially anchored, complementary, source-traceable, and integrated with physical interpretation and community narratives.