The Necker cube is an optical illusion that features a simple wireframe drawing of a cube. The cube appears to switch back and forth between two different orientations.
Table of Contents
- How does the Necker Cube Illusion work?
- Versions of the Necker Cube Illusion
- Illusions like the Necker Cube Illusion
- Discovery of the Necker Cube Illusion
- References and Resources
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How does the Necker Cube Illusion work?
The Necker cube illusion works by exploiting the way the brain interprets the 2-dimensional image of a cube.
The brain can interpret the image in different ways, as a cube that is facing towards or away from the viewer.
The illusion is created because the image of the cube lacks the necessary information to determine a clear and stable three-dimensional interpretation, so the brain can flip between different possibilities.
The illusion works by playing with the viewer’s expectations about the relationship between the lines of the cube and the viewer’s sense of depth.
The brain uses cues such as perspective, shading, and past experiences to create a 3-dimensional perception of the image.
In the case of the Necker cube, the brain can interpret the lines of the cube as either the front or back of a cube.
Since there is no clear cue that indicates which interpretation is correct, the brain tends to flip between these two interpretations in a random manner, creating the illusion that the cube is changing its orientation.
This illusion also highlights the concept of “perceptual set” which refers to the brain’s ability to focus on specific aspects of the image and ignore others depending on the context and “top-down processing” where the brain uses prior knowledge to interpret the visual information coming from the eyes.
The brain uses prior knowledge to make predictions and hypotheses about what it is seeing, and this can influence how it interprets ambiguous or conflicting visual information.
It also highlights the concept of “figure-ground reversal” which refers to the brain’s ability to switch attention between the foreground and background of an image.
Versions of the Necker Cube Illusion
The following are some alternate versions of the Necker Cube Illusion:
Left cube shows blue bar going in “down from the top”.
Right cube shows the object going in “up from the bottom”.
They are the same Cube.
Illusions like the Necker Cube Illusion
Ambiguous illusions are visual stimuli that can be interpreted in more than one way. These illusions typically consist of a single image that can be perceived in multiple ways. Ambiguous illusions can be used to study the neural mechanisms of perception and how the brain resolves ambiguity.
Some related illusions include the following:
The Rubin vase, also known as the Rubin face or the figure-ground vase, is a famous optical illusion in which the image of a vase can also be perceived as two faces in profile looking at each other.
The duck-rabbit illusion is an optical illusion that is an image that can be perceived as either a duck or a rabbit depending on how the viewer looks at it.
The My Wife and My Mother-in-Law illusion is an optical illusion with an image of a young woman’s face that can also be perceived as an older woman’s face.
The Schröder Staircase is an optical illusion that features a drawing of a staircase. The staircase appears to be either ascending or descending, depending on how the brain interprets the angles of the lines.
The impossible cube is an optical illusion that depicts a three-dimensional object that is physically impossible to construct.
The Penrose triangle, also known as the Penrose tribar, is an optical illusion that depicts a three-dimensional object that is physically impossible to construct.
The impossible trident is a three-pronged impossible shape resembling a trident. It is usually depicted as a three-pronged fork with each prong appearing to be a continuation of the next, creating an impossible shape.
The spinning dancer illusion is a visual illusion that depicts a silhouette of a dancer spinning clockwise or counterclockwise. The direction of the dancer’s spin can appear to change depending on the viewer’s perception
The Monroe-Einstein illusion works by playing with the viewer’s expectations about the relationships between the features of the faces and the viewer’s sense of facial proportions.
Discovery of the Necker Cube Illusion
This illusion is named after the Swiss crystallographer Louis Necker who published the first known description of the illusion in 1832.
Louis Albert Necker was a Swiss crystallographer and mineralogist who was born in 1786 and died in 1861. Crystallography is the scientific study of the arrangement of atoms in crystals, and how the arrangement of these atoms affects the physical and chemical properties of the crystal.
He was the first to publish a description of the illusion that is now known as the Necker cube, in a 1832 paper.
He was also known for his work in mineralogy and crystallography, and was considered a leading expert in the field of crystallography in his time.
Necker was a professor at the Academy of Geneva and later at the University of Geneva. He also served as the director of the Natural History Museum of Geneva.
He published several works on mineralogy, crystallography, and optics, and made significant contributions to the understanding of crystal structures and the nature of light.
References and Resources
Check out our complete list of illusions.