Ambiguous Visual Illusion

November 30, 2006/Caroline Latham/

What do you see?

Do you see a series of black shapes on a white back­ground, or do you see a white word on black back­ground? Try to see both, one at a time :-)

This image is an exam­ple of an ambigu­ous illu­sion — a pic­ture or object that requires per­cep­tu­al switch­ing between the alter­na­tive inter­pre­ta­tions of fig­ure and ground. Our visu­al sys­tem sim­pli­fies visu­al scenes into a fore­ground fig­ure that we focus on and a ground which is every­thing else and forms the back­ground. And although you may be able to switch the fig­ure and ground back and forth to see one image or the oth­er, your eyes will not let you see both images at the same time. Our visu­al per­cep­tion is cre­at­ed by our brain’s inter­pre­ta­tion in the cere­bral cor­tex of visu­al infor­ma­tion enter­ing through the visu­al path­way.

The word in white let­ters is LIFT.

More brain teas­er games:

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29 Comments

  1. Richard York on November 28, 2007 at 3:44

    LIFT



  2. Sheri on December 6, 2007 at 6:11

    LIFT



  3. ET on January 1, 2008 at 1:51

    I can see both, whichev­er I want



  4. Halidom on January 1, 2008 at 8:05

    I can see both but it seems to switch back and forth as I move my eyes across the picture.



  5. Mark on January 6, 2008 at 8:26

    The word Lift



  6. Peanut on January 10, 2008 at 1:45

    LIFT



  7. yahobahne on January 20, 2008 at 8:33

    the word lift



  8. Cheese on January 26, 2008 at 12:06

    Lift



  9. CHRIS on February 29, 2008 at 12:43

    LIFT



  10. Aaron on March 23, 2008 at 10:38

    The word LIFT :)



  11. play4evr on June 3, 2008 at 5:49

    LIFT



  12. Mukesh on June 5, 2008 at 4:48

    YES LIFT



  13. ShelbyJune on June 10, 2008 at 12:32

    LIFT, although I can see both fig­ures and word.



  14. zoomspark on June 18, 2008 at 2:23

    i see the word ‘laughed’. oh…oh wait, it reads: lift.



  15. joy on October 22, 2008 at 3:25

    LIFT



  16. deedee on November 11, 2008 at 1:56

    i see both but it’s a lot hard­er to just see the shapes rather than the word lift



  17. Deloris on December 28, 2008 at 5:29

    I see a white word on a black background.



  18. Stephanie on December 29, 2008 at 4:58

    lift is the answer. why was this ques­tion so much easier?



  19. lexi on January 6, 2009 at 8:27

    LIFT is what i see



  20. iyana on January 24, 2009 at 11:20

    i see the word LIFT in white



  21. hides on January 30, 2009 at 10:29

    the first few sec­onds i only saw the shapes, but after that i saw the word lift. now i can see both…switch back and forth



  22. Sina on February 22, 2009 at 3:45

    Lift works
    Shapes works



  23. Deepthi on February 27, 2009 at 2:47

    LIFT



  24. johara on March 30, 2009 at 7:20

    i can see lift



  25. sreekanth on March 31, 2009 at 4:25

    can see both white and black back­ground and the word lift



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