Judgement of Blame in Alzheimer's Disease Sufferers.

The algebraic structure of the blame schema of moral judgement (using Anderson‟s method, Integration Information Theory) was studied in a group of 18 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and a control group. The effects of Intent and Consequences of the action on the propensity to apportion blame were analysed, as well as the level of seriousness of different situations. Results show no significant differences between the AD and control groups in their algebraic structure, as they combine information about Intent and Consequence in the same way, but the AD group are less capable of taking seriousness into account when apportioning blame. The characteristics of the two cognitive processes that appear to be involved and their resistance to Alzheimer‟s disease are discussed.