My Wife and My Mother-in-Law Illusion

Do you see a young woman looking away or an older woman shown in profile?

Look at the portrait below without studying it too carefully. Which person appears first?

You may see a young woman turned away from you, wearing a hat and looking toward the left. Or you may see the profile of an older woman with a large nose and her chin lowered toward her chest.

Both interpretations use exactly the same lines.

This is My Wife and My Mother-in-Law, one of the best-known ambiguous figures in psychology.

It does not contain one correct picture hidden behind a misleading one. The visual information genuinely supports two coherent interpretations, and perception can reverse between them without the image changing.

How to See the Young Woman

Begin near the upper portion of the portrait.

The young woman is shown from behind and slightly to the side. Her face turns toward the left, so most of it is hidden.

The dark shape near the top is part of her hat. The textured area beneath it is her hair. The small curved form near the center is her ear.

A pale line runs from beneath the ear down toward the left. This forms her cheek and jaw. The dark horizontal mark below it is a choker around her neck.

Her shoulders and clothing occupy the large dark region across the lower half of the drawing.

How to See the Older Woman

Now reinterpret the same central features.

The young woman’s ear becomes the older woman’s eye.

The young woman’s jawline becomes a long nose pointing toward the left. Her choker becomes the older woman’s mouth, and the pale neck area beneath it becomes the lower face and chin.

The young woman’s veil and hair become a head covering surrounding the older woman’s face.

Once these features connect, the older profile may suddenly become obvious. The young woman may then become difficult to recover until you deliberately return to her ear, jaw, and neck.

The Proof: The Same Features Change Meaning

The proof image shows two copies of the unchanged portrait.

No lines were moved between the two copies. The overlays merely identify which features belong to each interpretation.

The important transformation is not physical. It occurs when the visual system changes how individual marks are grouped into facial features.

Why You Cannot Easily See Both at Once

The two women compete for the same visual material.

One curved feature cannot function simultaneously as a young woman’s ear and an older woman’s eye within one stable facial interpretation. The jaw cannot remain a jaw while also serving as a nose.

Perception therefore settles on one organization at a time.

After several seconds, adaptation, attention shifts, or a change in fixation can weaken the dominant interpretation. The alternative then takes over, producing a perceptual reversal.

A review of brain research on ambiguous figures describes how perception can reverse spontaneously even though the stimulus remains unchanged.

The related Necker Cube Illusion alternates between two depth orientations, while Rubin’s Vase alternates between a central vase and two surrounding faces.

Where the Illusion Came From

American cartoonist William Ely Hill published the best-known version in the humor magazine Puck on November 6, 1915.

Its caption read, “My wife and my mother-in-law. They are both in this picture. Find them.”

The Library of Congress record preserves the original publication and identifies Hill as the artist.

The design itself appears to have been adapted from an earlier image that can be traced to at least an 1888 German postcard.

Psychologist Edwin Boring later brought the image into experimental psychology through his 1930 paper, “A New Ambiguous Figure.” The drawing consequently became known as the Boring figure, despite being anything but boring to look at.

Does Your Age Decide Which Woman You See?

A widely reported claim is that younger viewers tend to see the young woman first while older viewers tend to see the older woman.

The research is more complicated.

In a 2018 study, younger participants gave lower age estimates for the briefly shown figure, while older participants gave higher estimates. The authors interpreted this as evidence that own-age social biases influenced perception.

However, the study inferred what participants saw from the age they reported rather than asking them directly which woman they perceived.

A 2021 replication asked that additional question. It reproduced the relationship between the viewer’s age and the estimated age of the figure, but found no reliable evidence that older participants actually saw the older woman more often.

The later researchers concluded that age affected judgment more clearly than perception. People may partly anchor an uncertain age estimate on their own age regardless of which woman they see.

Why Fixation and Prior Knowledge Matter

Where you look can favor one interpretation.

Focusing on the ear-like feature and treating it as an eye supports the older woman. Following the smooth cheek and jaw below it supports the younger woman.

Instructions and prior exposure also matter. Once someone points out the second face, switching becomes much easier because you know which features must be regrouped.

The 2021 study found that previous familiarity with the image was related to which interpretation participants reported. Experience with the illusion can therefore influence the starting point, even though it does not change the physical drawing.

Try a Different Kind of Switching Test

Perceptual reversal happens when the same visual input is reorganized into a different interpretation.

Cognitive Train’s Task Switch Test measures a different form of flexibility: changing rapidly between explicit color and shape rules while tracking the extra reaction-time cost of each switch.

How It Relates to Other Ambiguous Figures

The planned Duck-Rabbit Illusion uses one head outline that can be grouped as either a duck facing one way or a rabbit facing the other.

The Spinning Dancer Illusion contains insufficient depth information, allowing the figure’s rotation to reverse between clockwise and counterclockwise.

My Wife and My Mother-in-Law is different because both interpretations are human faces. The same contours are reassigned not only to different features, but to people of dramatically different apparent ages.

What It All Comes Down To

My Wife and My Mother-in-Law contains one fixed set of lines that supports two complete portraits.

The young woman’s ear becomes the older woman’s eye. Her jaw becomes a nose, her choker becomes a mouth, and her neck becomes a chin.

Perception cannot stabilize both organizations at once, so the image reverses between them.

For more ambiguous figures, impossible objects, false motion, and size distortions, browse the full Optical Illusions guide. Cognitive Train’s brain tests explore perception, attention, speed, and reasoning, while its free brain training tools offer more ways to challenge visual thinking.