Picture of old lady and young lady illusion

Picture of old lady and young lady illusion

  • A 2018 study conducted at Flinders University in Australia put forward a theory about a classic optical illusion called "My Wife and My Mother-in-Law." It's also known as the Boring Figure.
  • The drawing shows both a young woman looking away and an old lady's profile.
  • The study claimed that whichever woman you saw first depended on your age — people between 18 and 30 tended to see the young woman first, whereas people over 30 first spotted the older woman.
  • It concluded that "own-age biases affect subconscious face perception."
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"My Wife and My Mother-in-Law" is one of the most well-known optical illusions in the world.

It hinges on facial perception: You can either see a young woman turning away or the profile of an older woman staring solemnly towards the left side of the drawing. However, you can only see one at a time.

Here's a hint: The young woman's necklace is the old woman's mouth. Public domain

See it? The young woman's chin doubles as the older woman's nose, and the old woman's chin is also the young woman's chest.

If you've ever wondered why you see whichever woman you see first, a 2018 Australian study conducted by two psychology professors concluded that it has to do with your age.

According to the study, a younger person will see the younger woman first, while older people will see the older woman first. The study included 393 participants (242 males, 141 females) from ages 18 to 68, with a median age of 32. They were shown the image for half a second, and then were asked the gender and age of the person that they saw.

While most participants saw the younger woman first, it could be because many of the participants were on the younger side. When the researchers separated the oldest 10% and the youngest 10% of those surveyed, they found that the older set saw the older woman first, and the younger set the young woman.

The point of the study was to determine if "own-age biases affect the initial interpretation of an image at a subconscious level." But even if you see the older lady first, just remember: You're as young as you feel.

  • Read more:
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  • Watch a baker create an incredible optical illusion cake of Baby Yoda
  • An artist is leaving mind-bending optical illusions on buildings worldwide, and they'll make you do a double-take
  • This video of a bird — or is it a rabbit? — is going viral on Twitter, and people are seriously confused

AN OPTICAL illusion has re-emerged online and is baffling the internet.

“My Wife or Mother-In-Law” is one of the most well known illusions in history and now researchers believe what you see could depend on your age.

Picture of old lady and young lady illusion

2

The illusion can be seen as two different women, one young and the other old, depending on how you look at the sketchCredit: Wikimedia Commons

Viewers can see a young woman facing away, or an older, hook-nosed woman facing leftwards.

If you are struggling to make them both out, you can see the younger woman's chin doubles as the older woman's nose and her ear as her eye.

The oldest version first appeared on a German postcard but the most famous version, seen here, was drawn by British cartoonist William Ely Hill and appeared in American magazine Puck on November 6, 1915.

An Australian study published by two psychology professors at Flinders University, claims that whichever figure you see relates to your age.

The study claims older people will notice the older woman first, whereas younger individuals will see the younger figure.

The study included 393 participants (242 males, 141 females) from ages 18 to 68, with a median age of 32.

Picture of old lady and young lady illusion

2

On the left image a portion has been shaded to make the young woman's face more prominent, while on the right you can see the old hag

They were shown the image for half a second, and then were asked to reveal the gender and age of the figure they saw first.

Most of the participants saw the younger woman first, which could be because many ages of the participants were leaning towards the younger side.

When the researchers separated the oldest 10 per cent and the youngest 10 per cent of those surveyed, they found that the older set saw the older woman first, and younger individuals saw the younger figure.

MOST READ IN NEWS

The aim of the whole study was to determine if "own-age biases affect the initial interpretation of an image at a subconscious level."

Another baffling optical illusion was sweeping across the internet a couple of months ago, making it viral.

An image, created by University of Texas academic, Professor David Novick, features 12 circles within multi-coloured horizontal lines.

Eerie optical illusion tricks your brain - but can you work it out?



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How do you see the old woman in the Old woman young woman illusion?

If you see the old woman: look at the old woman's nose, and think of it as the left cheek of a face looking away from you, and look at the old woman's eye and think of it as an ear on a face looking away from you.

What are the 4 types of illusion?

This can lead to four types of cognitive illusions: ambiguous illusions, distorting/geometrical-optical illusions, paradox illusions, or fictions (image source).

What is the most famous illusion?

1 Troxler's Effect..
2 Chubb Illusion (luminance).
3 Checker Shadow Illusion (contrast).
4 Lilac Chaser (color).
5 The Poggendorff Illusion (geometric).
6 Shepard's Tables (size).
7 Kanizsa's Triangle (Gestalt effect).
8 Impossible Trident (impossible objects).

What are illusion pictures called?

An autostereogram is a single-image stereogram (SIS), designed to create the visual illusion of a three-dimensional (3D) scene from a two-dimensional image in the human brain. An ASCII stereogram is an image that is formed using characters on a keyboard. Magic Eye is an autostereogram book series.