2020 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Toward an Evolutionary Thanatology
| Project/Area Number |
18K18693
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| Research Institution | Kyoto University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2018-06-29 – 2022-03-31
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| Keywords | animals / children / death / dying / awareness / cognition / thanatology / understanding |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Completion of a book chapter on comparative evolutionary thanatology, now published.Submission of paper on chimpanzees' responses to a chimpanzees' to putrescine, a chemical cue of death. Now under review.
Finalization of animations for testing children's attentional and orientation responses to fatal accidents.
Development of an online questionnaire for parents regarding children's understanding of death.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
Covid-related delays to testing children and animals.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Test children on responses to animations involving "fatal" accidents. In a ne development we will also test chimpanzees' reactions.
Other developments are an online survey of parents understanding of their children's understanding of death, and correlations with the children's true knowledge.
Final testing of monkeys responses to visual representations of dead vs. living animals and identification of the visual features underlying differential responses.
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| Causes of Carryover |
Covid-related restrictions on testing and access to participants prevented full use of funding.
Original and new projects (especially use of online data collection) will be completed this year.
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