What do you see in this picture? Simply a jumble of dark shapes? Look again and it will suddenly become apparent. See it?. If not, you may want to look for a hint at the bottom of the page.

Now, look at the picture again.. Can you see it just as a jumble of dark shapes? Once you have recognised the image for what it is, it is almost impossible for your brain to not see it as that.

The image itself as it appears on your retina hasn't changed in any way. What has occurred is that while you were staring at the image, your brain was working hard to define it and classify it as a recognisable shape. Having done this, you mind stores this classification for instant recall, making it virtually impossible for your brain to not see it as that.

Here's another...


This picture is reportedly a photograph take from an aircraft flying over the Andes Mountains. If you can't make out the image, just look at it for a few moments, eventually the shapes will resolve into something familiar. Once you recognise the image it is easy to spot

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

In the figure 1 above, we imagine a white triangle exists, although in reality, only 3 'pacman' shapes are drawn. Can you see it? By altering the 'pacman' shapes (figure 2 & Figure 3) we appear to alter the shape of the non-existent triangle to have concave and convex sides respectively

In this example, word itself does not exist, but the shadow helps define its edges and our mind fills in the rest based on previous experience. Seeing only part of the letters can help us visualise the entire shape

An extension of this is 'half text'. Because the shapes are familiar to us, our minds fill in the blanks and we see what isn't actually there.

Read the above sentence. No, read it again, out loud this time.
Have you read it?. This is a variation to show that we see what we expect, and we often don't see what we don't expect.