Naïve intuitions about what constitutes “an opposite process”

Three studies investigate adults’ naïve intuitions about what constitutes an “opposite process”. In Study one, the task involves iconic stimuli, that is, simple diagrams showing a transformation. In Study two, the participants were asked to produce a written description of the transformation process shown in the diagram and then to write what they considered to be the opposite process. In Study three, they were presented with pairs of sentences and were asked to rate the extent to which they agreed that the second sentence described a process which was opposite to the first sentence. Overall, the results are consistent and show that adults associate the idea of an opposite process with a reversal of the initial and final stages, rather than a process starting from the same initial point and leading to an opposite end. Secondary differences emerged relating to the conditions studied.