Can You See All Twelve Black Dots At Once?

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Can You See All Twelve Black Dots At Once?
Can You See All Twelve Black Dots At Once?

There are actually twelve black dots, but as Akiyoshi Kitaoka, the psychology professor at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan, recently noted on Facebook, most people won’t be able to see them at once.

All twelve dots are really on the image, but most people are unable to see them all at the same time, making the dots seem like they appear and disappear with every blink. This occurs because the eye’s stimulated light receptors can sometimes influence the ones next to them, creating illusions.

In this particular image, tweeted by game developer Will Kerslake on Sunday, the brain can see some black dots but guesses when it fills in the peripheral vision. Because mostly grey lines appear in the periphery, the black dots don’t appear.

The image is a variation on the Hermann grid illusion, a diagram of black squares separated by white lines. Dark patches appear where the white lines intersect, but only in a person’s periphery.

How many dots can you see at once?

Muriel M. Delossantos

22 COMMENTS

    • On the first picture I only saw 6. And there’s nothing that I can do to see 12. Now on the second picture I saw all 12, and at once. There’s a trick. If you’re on a laptop, fold your screen down until you see all 12 dots.

  1. Nope, all twelve are there — I can see them. I have to build up to it, “learning” where they are and “remembering” to see them. Could only see one when I started.

  2. It’s very frustrating that your article shows a cropped version with only SIX dots. There is no logical reason to scroll down to look for the real image and many likely never did. BTW, if you stare long enough you will see all 12,000 characters in this comment.

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