The processing of negation is typically regarded as one of the most demanding cognitive processes as it often involves the reversal of input information. As negation is also regarded as a core linguistic process, to date, investigations of negation have typically been linguistic in nature. However, negation is a standard operator also within non-linguistic domains. For example, traffic signs often use negation to indicate a prohibition of specific actions (e.g., no left turn). In the current study, we investigate whether processing difficulties that are typically reported within the linguistic domain generalize to pictorial negation. Across two experiments, linguistic negation and pictorial negation were directly compared to their affirmative counterparts. In line with the literature, the results show that there is a general processing benefit for pictorial input. Most interestingly, the core process of negation also benefits from the pictorial input. Specifically, the processing difficulty in pictorial negation compared to affirmation is less pronounced than within the linguistic domain, especially concerning error rates. In the current experiments, pictorial negation did not result in increased error rates compared to the affirmative condition. Overall, the current results suggest that negation in pictorial conditions also results in a slowing of information processing. However, the use of pictorial negation can ease processing difficulty over linguistic negation.

否定的处理通常被认为是最苛刻的认知过程之一，因为它通常涉及输入信息的逆转。由于否定也被视为语言的核心过程，因此迄今为止，否定性的研究通常是语言学性质的。但是，否定也是非语言领域中的标准运算符。例如，交通标志经常使用否定来表示禁止特定动作（例如，禁止左转）。在当前的研究中，我们调查在语言领域内通常报告的处理困难是否会普遍归因于图片否定。在两个实验中，直接将语言否定和图画否定与肯定否定进行比较。根据文献，结果表明，图形输入具有一般的处理优势。最有趣的是，否定的核心过程也受益于图片输入。具体而言，与确认相比，图片否定的处理难度没有在语言领域内明显，尤其是在错误率方面。在当前实验中，与肯定条件相比，图片否定并没有导致错误率增加。总的来说，目前的结果表明，对图片条件的否定也会导致信息处理速度变慢。但是，与语言否定相比，图形否定的使用可以减轻处理上的困难。与肯定相比，图片否定的处理难度没有语言领域那么明显，特别是在错误率方面。在当前实验中，与肯定条件相比，图片否定并没有导致错误率增加。总体而言，目前的结果表明，对图片条件的否定也会导致信息处理速度变慢。但是，与语言否定相比，图形否定的使用可以减轻处理上的困难。与肯定相比，图片否定的处理难度没有语言领域那么明显，特别是在错误率方面。在当前实验中，与肯定条件相比，图片否定并没有导致错误率增加。总的来说，目前的结果表明，对图片条件的否定也会导致信息处理速度变慢。但是，与语言否定相比，图形否定的使用可以减轻处理上的困难。当前的结果表明，对图片条件的否定也会导致信息处理速度变慢。但是，与语言否定相比，图形否定的使用可以减轻处理上的困难。当前的结果表明，对图片条件的否定也会导致信息处理速度变慢。但是，与语言否定相比，图形否定的使用可以减轻处理难度。