Orbison illusion

Orbison illusion consisting of a square placed over radial lines.

The Orbison illusion (or Orbison's illusion) is an optical illusion first described by American psychologist William Orbison (1912–1952)^[1] in 1939.

Description

The Orbison illusion consists of a two dimensional figure, such as a circle or square, superimposed over a background of radial lines or concentric circles. The result is an optical illusion in which both the figure and the rectangle which contains it appear to distorted; in particular, squares appear slightly bulged, circles appear elliptical, and the containing rectangle appears tilted.^[2][3]

References

Footnotes

General References

• Fineman, Mark (1996). The Nature of Visual Illusion. Dover Publications. pp. 152–153. ISBN 0486291057. 
• Robinson, J.O. (1998). The Psychology of Visual Illusion. Dover Publications. pp. 72–73. ISBN 978-0486404493. 

Optical illusions (list)
Illusions	Afterimage Ambiguous image Ames room Barberpole Bezold Café wall Checker shadow Chubb Cornsweet Delboeuf Ebbinghaus Ehrenstein Flash lag Fraser spiral Gravity hill Grid Hering Impossible fork Jastrow Lilac chaser Mach bands McCollough Müller-Lyer Necker cube Orbison Penrose stairs triangle Peripheral drift Poggendorff Ponzo Rubin vase Sander Schroeder stairs Spinning Dancer Ternus Vertical–horizontal White's Wundt Zöllner
Popular culture	Op art Trompe-l'œil Ascending and Descending (drawing) Waterfall (drawing) Spectropia (book)
Related	Auditory illusions Tactile illusions Temporal illusion

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