10種視覺幻象

Seeing isn't necessarily believing, as the Ames Room proves.

就像艾姆斯屋所證明的那樣，眼見未必爲實。

Optical illusions are popular again thanks to the internet. This article explains several classic optical illusions and the reasons why they continue to fool people to this day.

因爲互聯網，視覺幻象再次流行起來。這篇文章介紹了幾種經典的視覺幻象以及直到今日它們依然能繼續欺騙世人的原因。

Young woman vs. old woman

年輕女子VS.老婦人

Cartoonist William Ely Hill published 'My Wife and My Mother-in-Law' in the magazine in November 1915 with the caption 'They are both in this picture — Find them.'

漫畫家威廉·伊萊·希爾於1915年11月在雜誌上刊登了一幅畫“我的妻子和我的繼母”，並配文稱，“她們都在這張畫中——找到她們。”

"My Wife and My Mother-in-Law" is arguably one of the most famous optical illusions in the world. Some people see a young lady with her head turned towards the background while others see an elderly woman's side profile.

“我的妻子和我的繼母”可以說是這個世界上最有名的視覺幻象之一。一些人看到了一位把頭轉向背景的年輕女子，而其他人則看到一位老婦人的側面像。

A 2018 study from Flinders University in Australia says that who you see in the image depends on your age. The young persons saw the young lady while old persons saw the elderly woman.

澳大利亞弗林德斯大學2018年的一項研究表明，從這幅圖中能看到誰取決於你的年齡。年輕人會看到年輕女子，而年長者會看到老婦人。

"The results therefore demonstrate that high-level social group processes have a subconscious effect on the early stages of face processing," the study's authors note.

這份研究報告的作者表示，“結果表明，高度的社會羣體經歷對面部識別的最初階段有下意識影響”。

Curvature Blindness Illusion

曲度視覺缺失幻象

What do you see in the center of the above image: curvy lines or zigzag ones? Most people see both — double wavy lines and double angled lines alternating. Now look at the lines as they appear over the black and white area of the photo. What do you see now? The truth is all the lines are wavy.

從上述圖片的中間部分你看到了什麼：曲線還是鋸齒形線條？大多數人兩種線條都會看到——雙曲線和雙鋸齒形線條交替出現。現在看看這張照片黑色和白色區域的線條。現在你看到了什麼樣的線條呢？事實是所有的線條都是曲線。

When a wavy line is perceived as a zigzag line, it's called curvature blindness, according to a new study by Kohske Takahashi, an associate professor of experimental psychology at Chukyo University in Japan.

日本中京大學實驗心理學副教授高橋孝助的一項新研究表明，當一條曲線被看成一條鋸齒形線條，這被稱爲曲度視覺缺失。

“I'd say that our eyes and brain may have been evolutionarily adapted to detect corners more efficiently than curves,” he said. “We are surrounded by artificial products, which have more corners than natural environment does, and hence our visual. This visual phenomenon doesn't cause the problem in our everyday life, otherwise someone should have found this illusion earlier.”

“我認爲，與弧度相比，我們的眼睛和大腦在進化的過程中可能適應於更有效率地發現角度，”他說道。“我們周圍都是人造產品，這些產品與自然環境相比有更多的角，因此我們的視覺也能更有效率地發現角度。這種視覺現象在我們的日常生活中並不會引起什麼問題，否則人們早就發現這種幻象了。”

The Spinning Dancer Illusion

旋轉舞者幻象

Is this figure spinning clockwise or counter-clockwise?

這個人在順時針旋轉還是逆時針旋轉？

This image shows a female dancer pirouetting in a continuous loop. The illusion has to do with the direction in which she is spinning. Viewers will initially think that she is turning in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. However, when observing the image at other times, the same viewer may feel absolutely certain that the dancer is spinning in the opposite direction. In reality, this animation is on a continuous loop and does not suddenly change directions.

這幅圖展示了一位女舞者在不斷進行單腳尖旋轉。這一幻象與她旋轉的方向有關。觀察者最初會認爲她在順時針旋轉或逆時針旋轉。然而，在其他時候觀察這幅圖的時候，同一位觀察者也許會覺得這位舞者一定在朝另一個方向旋轉。事實上，這位舞者就是在不斷旋轉，而且並沒有突然改變方向。

Why is it impossible to define the direction of the spin? This optical illusion tricks you with depth perception. Because there aren't enough clues about the depth of the dancer image, no one can define the direction of her spin with absolute certainty. The image is a silhouette, so the dancer’s pony tail or extended arm can only be seen when she's facing to the side. They disappear from view at the critical moment when we need them to provide information about depth and direction.

爲什麼要確定她旋轉的方向是不可能的呢？這一視覺幻象用深度感知欺騙了你。因爲關於這幅舞者圖的深度並沒有足夠的線索，沒人能完全確定她旋轉的方向。這幅圖是一個剪影，所以只有當這位舞者面向一側的時候我們才能看到她的馬尾辮或伸展的手臂。當我們需要它們提供關於深度和方向的信息的時候，它們在這個重要時刻從視野中消失了。

Ames Room

艾姆斯屋

The Ames Room is one of the best (and most famous) examples of how perception is not always the same as the reality of what's in front of them. When viewed from the front, an Ames Room appears to be a normal, square room with walls perpendicular to floor and ceiling. However, the back wall is in fact built at a sharp angle and the floor and ceiling are steeply slanted.

艾姆斯屋是“感知到的並非總是事實”的最佳（也最有名的）例子之一。從正面觀察，艾姆斯屋看上去是一個牆壁與地板和屋頂垂直的正常的方形屋子。然而，實際上後牆是以一個很尖的角度建成的，而且地板和屋頂也傾斜地很嚴重。

This creates an illusion that makes people and objects on one side of the room seem much smaller or larger than people or objects on the other side of the room. Since perspective is important, many Ames Room models have some sort of pinhole viewing device so that the viewer sees the room from an angle where they cannot perceive the slanted floor and the different lengths of the walls. The idea behind the Ames Room has been used in movies such as "The Lord of the Rings" series to make some actors seem much shorter or taller than they really are.

這個屋子創造了一種幻象，使房間一側的人和物體看上去比房間另一側的人或物體小得多或大得多。因爲視角很重要，所以許多艾姆斯屋模型都有某種針孔式查看設備，這樣觀察者從一個角度觀察這個房間，卻不會注意到傾斜的地板和牆面的不同長度。艾姆斯屋背後的理念被運用於各種電影中，例如《指環王》系列電影，它使一些演員看上去比他們實際上要矮得多或高得多。

Simultaneous Contrast Illusion

同時對比錯覺

In this image, the horizontal bar in the middle of the picture is one solid color. However, the changing gradient behind the bar makes it seem like the color of the bar itself is changing as it goes from left to right. If the viewer uses their hands to block the background, it becomes obvious that the whole bar is indeed only one shade of gray.

在這幅圖中，中間的橫條是純色的。然而，橫條後面變化的傾斜度使它的顏色看上去就像從左至右在不斷改變。如果觀察者用手遮住背景，顯然整根橫條確實只有一種顏色。

This trick shows that people tend to make assumptions based on surroundings rather than looking only at a singular object.

這個小把戲說明，人們往往會根據周遭環境做出假設而不是隻觀察單一物體。

Penrose Stairs

彭羅斯階梯

The Penrose Stairs, also known as the Impossible Staircase, is perhaps one of the most famous of all optical illusions. In this two dimensional image, the four flights of stairs appear to link together so that a climber would go up or down the steps in a continuous loop but never arrive at a higher or lower point.

彭羅斯階梯也被稱爲不可能樓梯，它可能是最有名的視覺幻象之一了。在這幅二維圖片中，這四段樓梯似乎連在一起，所以爬樓梯的人會不斷爬上或爬下樓梯，但永遠不會到達更高或更低的一個位置。

In fact, this is just one example of the kind of perspective tricks that painters and artists working with two-dimensional mediums have employed for centuries.

實際上，這只是幾百年來畫家和藝術家們用二維媒介來進行創作的一種視角手法。

Ponzo Illusion

龐佐錯覺

The Ponzo Illusion relies on geometric shapes to trick the eye. The idea is similar to the Simultaneous Contrast Illusion: People will make assumptions about an object based on the information that they get from the background.

龐佐錯覺依靠幾何圖形來欺騙你的眼睛。這一理念與同時對比錯覺相似：人們會根據他們從背景獲得的信息來對他們看到的物體做出假設。

The illusion is very easy to recreate. When he first came up with it, Italian psychologist Mario Ponzo drew two horizontal parallel lines that were exactly the same length. By then drawing vertical lines that gradually got closer together, Ponzo was able to trick viewers into thinking that the parallel line in the background was much longer than the one in the foreground.

這種幻象非常容易再現。意大利心理學家馬里奧·龐佐最初想到這個主意的時候，他畫了兩條長度相同且平行的橫線。然後他又畫了兩條逐漸靠近的豎線，這樣龐佐就能使觀察者覺得背景中的橫線比前景中的橫線要長得多。

Necker Cube

奈克方塊

The Necker Cube is a drawing of a square that has no clues about depth. This means that it's virtually impossible to decide which part of the square is the front and which is the back. The basic illusion is that some people will perceive a three dimensional cube with one side in the front while others will imagine that the very same side is the back of the cube.

奈克方塊就是畫一個深度不確定的正方形。這就意味着幾乎不可能確定這個正方形哪邊是正面，哪邊是背面。這一基本幻象就是一些人會覺得這是一個一側朝前的三維正方體，而其他人會覺得相同的一側是正方體的背面。

So often the challenge is not to decide which side is the front and which is the back, but to try and see the cube from another perspective.

所以這裏的挑戰往往不是確定哪一面是正面，哪一面是背面，而是嘗試從不同的視角來觀察這個正方體。

The Rabbit Duck Head

兔頭還是鴨頭

One of the earliest examples of an ambiguous illustration, the Rabbit-Duck Head Illusion was first published in Germany in the late 19th century. Such hidden images were quite popular at the time. In this particular example, the duck's beak becomes the rabbit’s ears and the eye is drawn in such a way that it fits for both the right-facing and left-facing animals.

兔頭還是鴨頭幻象最早於19世紀末在德國公佈，這也是最早的模糊幻象之一。當時這樣的隱藏圖像非常流行。在這個特例中，鴨子的嘴變成了兔子的耳朵，而圖中的眼睛設計的既可以當作鴨子的左眼，又可以當作兔子的右眼。

The image was used by early 20th century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, who studied the idea of perception and wrote academic papers that discussed the ways in which people perceive things.

20世紀初的哲學家路德維格·維特根斯坦使用了這幅圖，他研究了感知的概念，並寫下了探討人們感知事物的方式的學術論文。

Optical art

歐普藝術

Optical art images seem to be moving even though they aren't animated. Most theories about the illusion of motion in optical art have to do with the brain’s inability to process the different colors and shapes simultaneously.

歐普藝術圖像看上去就像在移動，儘管它們並未被動畫化。關於歐普藝術移動錯覺的多數理論都與大腦無法同時處理不同的顏色和形狀有關。

These images are most often associated with psychedelic art, but other schools also use optical art techniques, which have their roots in impressionism, dadaism, cubism and other more-classic forms of art.

這些圖像往往與幻覺藝術有關，但基於印象派、達達派、立體主義以及其他經典藝術的學派也會用到歐普藝術技巧。

（翻譯：Dlacus）