Changes over time in information integration among older people with dementia: judgments of blame and forgiveness

Valentin Decroix (1) , Eric Fruchart (1) , Patricia Rulence-Pâques (2)

1 LIPSEM - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Performance Santé Environnement de Montagne
2 PSITEC - Psychologie : Interactions, Temps, Emotions, Cognition (PSITEC) - ULR 4072

The study explored the change over 15 months in how older people with dementia cognitively integrated three factors (Intention, Consequence, and Apology) when making judgments of blame and forgiveness. For each moral judgment, 8 older adults with dementia (Mage = 70.88; SD = 9.52) were confronted with a questionnaire comprising 12 scenarios (combinations of the three factors) at 3-month intervals. The questionnaire and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were administered every 3 months. Several repeated-measures analyses of variance were conducted on the data from each questionnaire, and a t-test was performed on the MMSE scores at baseline and at 15 months. Despite a decrease over time in the MMSE score, the cognitive processes in information integration were stable over the 15 months. Only the intent factor was considered in both types of moral judgment. In clinical practice, these findings might be useful for preventing cognitive decline.

Keywords: change over time judgment dementia information integration cognition; change over time; judgment; dementia; information integration; cognition

Domains: Psychology

Valentin Decroix, Eric Fruchart, Patricia Rulence-Pâques. Changes over time in information integration among older people with dementia: judgments of blame and forgiveness. Open Access Journal of Gerontology & Geriatric Medicine, 2024, 7 (5), ⟨10.19080/OAJGGM.2024.07.555722⟩. ⟨hal-04510193⟩