What is the inability to mentally reverse a sequence referred to as?

The inability to mentally reverse a sequence is referred to as irreversibility. This concept is crucial in developmental psychology, particularly in the context of cognitive development in children as described by Piaget's stages of cognitive development. Irreversibility occurs when a child is unable to understand that certain actions can be undone or reversed, which limits their understanding of transformations and cause-and-effect relationships.

For instance, if a child sees a ball of clay being flattened, they may fail to comprehend that the clay can be reshaped into its original form. This reflects a developmental stage where logical thinking is still emerging, typically observed in preoperational children.

In contrast, invariance refers to a principle where the properties or quantity of an entity remain the same despite changes in form or appearance, which is not directly related to the inability to reverse actions. Agnosia signifies a loss of ability to recognize objects or comprehend sensory stimuli, and displacement generally relates to a concept in psychology concerning the shifting of emotions or behaviors, which does not pertain to cognitive reversibility.