Optical Illusion: Can You See All 16 Circles In This Picture?

It is difficult to see all the circles in this picture, but if you look carefully, they do exist.

Optical illusions are a set of consistently misperceived visual perceptions that make distant objects seem closer or nearer than they are. These illusions can be broken down into two broad categories: physiological and cognitive. The physiological effect is when the human brain receives only part of the information coming from the eyes, while the cognitive effect is our interpretation of the images – we take it to mean something that it doesn’t.

This optical illusion was created by Anthony Norcia of the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in 2006. It is called the ‘Coffer illusion’ because the square boxes look a bit like coffers.

You’ll initially see boxes in the image that are constructed from white, grey, and black lines. The picture, however, conceals 16 circles. Do you see all 16 of the circles in this image?

Need a hint?

Hint: If you concentrate on the vertical lines that border the boxes, the circles should stand out to you.

Mike Battista of Cambridge Brain Sciences was quoted as saying by Metro, “Of course, the image contains no panels or circles at all—just shaded lines arranged in a pattern. It’s your brain that turns this pattern into something coherent. What I find fascinating is that once you see the circles, you can switch back and forth between interpretations.”

Mike added, “Even if you were originally biased toward seeing square panels, the conscious parts of your brain can force a different interpretation, once you know what to look for.”

More Optical Illusions to Try

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