The concept of death in preoperational retarded children

Fourteen preoperational retarded boys and girls (mean MA = 6-4), as classified by the failure to pass three conservation tasks, were interviewed for their concepts of death, with Koocher's (1973) study used as a model. Each S was asked, "What makes things die?" "How can you make dead things come back to life?" "When will you die?" and "What will happen then?" It was found that the preoperational retarded Ss did not have realistic concepts of when they will die, or of the permanence of death. They did, however, have realistic notions of how things die. It was also found that the types of replies made to these questions were related to their cognitive level (p less than .01).