Sternlicht M
J Genet Psychol. 1980 Dec;137(2d Half):157-64. doi: 10.1080/00221325.1980.10532815.
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).
十四名未达到运算阶段的智障男孩和女孩（平均心理年龄为6岁4个月），因未能通过三项守恒任务而被归类，他们接受了关于死亡概念的访谈，以库彻（1973年）的研究为模型。每个被试都被问到：“是什么导致事物死亡？”“怎样才能使死物复活？”“你什么时候会死？”以及“那时会发生什么？”结果发现，未达到运算阶段的智障被试对于自己何时会死以及死亡的永久性并没有现实的概念。然而，他们对于事物如何死亡却有现实的观念。还发现，对这些问题的回答类型与他们的认知水平相关（p小于0.01）。
