Editing Ambiguous image (section)

{{Short description|Image that exploits graphical similarities between two or more distinct images}}

[[File:My Wife and My Mother-In-Law (Hill).svg|thumb|upright=1|This figure can be seen as a young woman or an old woman; see [[My Wife and My Mother-in-Law]]. ]]
[[File:Face or vase ata 01.svg|thumb|upright=1|[[Rubin vase|Rubin's vase]] utilizes the concept of [[Negative space]] to create ambiguous images: the vase or two opposing faces.]]

'''Ambiguous images''' or '''reversible figures''' are visual forms that create [[ambiguity]] by exploiting graphical similarities and other properties of [[visual system]] interpretation between two or more distinct image forms. These are famous for inducing the phenomenon of [[multistable perception]]. Multistable perception is the occurrence of an image being able to provide multiple, although stable, perceptions.

One of the earliest examples of this type is the [[rabbit–duck illusion]], first published in ''Fliegende Blätter'', a German humor magazine.<ref>''Fliegende Blätter'' Oct. 23, 1892, p.&nbsp;147</ref> Other classic examples are the [[Rubin vase]],<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Parkkonen | first1 = L. | last2 = Andersson | first2 = J. | last3 = Hämäläinen | first3 = M. | last4 = Hari | first4 = R. | year = 2008 | title = Early visual brain areas reflect the percept of an ambiguous scene | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | volume = 105 | issue = 51| pages = 20500–20504 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.0810966105 | pmid=19074267 | pmc=2602606| bibcode = 2008PNAS..10520500P | doi-access = free }}</ref> and the "[[My Wife and My Mother-in-Law]]" drawing, the latter dating from a German postcard of 1888.

Ambiguous images are important to the field of psychology because they are often research tools used in experiments.<ref name="wimmer">{{cite journal | last1 = Wimmer | first1 = M. | last2 = Doherty | first2 = M. | year = 2011 | title = The development of ambiguous figure perception: Vi. conception and perception of ambiguous figures | journal = Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development | volume = 76 | issue = 1| pages = 87–104 | doi = 10.1111/j.1540-5834.2011.00595.x }}</ref> There is varying evidence on whether ambiguous images can be represented mentally,<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Mast | first1 = F.W. | last2 = Kosslyn | first2 = S.M. | year = 2002 | title = Visual mental images can be ambiguous: Insights from individual differences in spatial transformation abilities | journal = Cognition | volume = 86 | issue = 1| pages = 57–70 | doi = 10.1016/S0010-0277(02)00137-3 | pmid = 12208651 | s2cid = 37046301 }}</ref> but a majority of research has theorized that mental images cannot be ambiguous.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Chambers | first1 = D. | last2 = Reisberg | first2 = D. | s2cid = 197655523 | year = 1985 | title = Can mental images be ambiguous? | journal = Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance | volume = 11 | issue = 3| pages = 317–328 | doi = 10.1037/0096-1523.11.3.317 }}</ref>