Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2019 October 11

= October 11 =

The illusion about a young lady and an old lady
Look at the article saying My Wife and My Mother-in-Law. It's a notable illusion about whether to see a young lady or an old lady. A good hint is that the young lady's necklace is the old lady's mouth.

Some Internet sites talking about the illusion say that young people more easily see the young lady but that older people more easily see the old lady. Is this really true for any reason?? (If it were true, I would find it natural to think that the latter kind of person would see the illusion as "My Stepdaughter and My Wife".) Georgia guy (talk) 13:03, 11 October 2019 (UTC)
 * A full version of the August 2018 Scientific Reports paper, by Nicholls et. al., from Flinders University, is linked as Reference 4. You might find that study instructive. Regards. Martinevans123 (talk) 13:21, 11 October 2019 (UTC)
 * I'm sufficiently old, but I still see the young woman first. To see the old woman, I have to concentrate. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 14:19, 11 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Well, I do hope you weren't recruited onto this Talk page by means of Mechanical Turk. I see only five participants in the Nicholls study were over 60 years of age. Here's a plot of their findings: . Martinevans123 (talk) 14:27, 11 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Never heard of it. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:08, 11 October 2019 (UTC)
 * I'm sure most people will see the young woman first, since she's drawn more realistically. It would be interesting to find out which one people see first when primed by viewing realistic vs cartoonish/caricaturish drawings before being shown this one. Temerarius (talk) 03:16, 12 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Another factor is that older people are much more likely to have seen the puzzle before (I believe first saw it in the 1970s). It really is very well known. Alansplodge (talk) 07:38, 12 October 2019 (UTC)


 * I think the primary reason I see the young woman first is that the old woman's clothes have a rather high neckline, which also seems somewhat old-fashioned to me. Perhaps if people are sufficiently old they may be more be used to necklines like that and would then be more likely to see the old woman first.  But I'm over 60 myself, so maybe my suggestion is all wrong. --76.69.116.4 (talk) 08:58, 12 October 2019 (UTC)


 * I've seen it many times. I think Temer is onto it: That we're drawn to the more realistic depiction first. It's like an example of the stuff they've talked about in the "Brain Games" TV series: our brains try to make sense of things quickly - and a more realistic image is likely to take less time to recognize. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 13:39, 13 October 2019 (UTC)