Shepard’s “Turning the Tables”
What to do
Compare the two tables in the neighbouring figure. Which would be easier to get
through a narrow door? How do size and shape of the two table tops compare?
Now either press the ‘Run’ button, or click and drag the left table top on top of
the right table. If you click & drag far off that parallelogram you can rotate
it and test whether it fits.
Comment
The two table tops certainly do not look alike!
This phenomenon plays on the interchange of 2- and 3-dimensional interpretation
of the figure. If the figure depicted a real-world scene, the real tables certainly
would have a different shape.
Roger N. Shepard originated this one among a number of beautiful illusions, which
he drew himself; many of which are now “floating around the internet” without proper
attribution (e.g., the elephant with the impossible feet), his “Terror
Subterra” is also in the present collection. He also invented the “ever
rising scale” auditory illusion.
The original of the present illusion is called “Turning the Tables”.
Source
Shepard RN (1981) Psychological complementarity. In: Kubovy M & Pomerantz JR
(eds) Perceptual organization. 279–342. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Shepard RN (1990) Mind Sights: Original Visual Illusions, Ambiguities, and other
Anomalies, New York: WH Freeman and Company
Further artwork of Roger Shepard at Impossible World
Created: 2004-08-16
Last update: 2013-10-04