Also known as Rubin face, Rubin's face, Rubin vase, Rubin's vase, Rubin's vase-face illusion, goblet figure, and figure-ground vase. The eponym Rubin's figure refers to the Danish psychologist Edgar Rubin (1886-1951), who described the phenomenon in or shortly before 1915. It is used to denote a "cognitive illusion which may arise while viewing an ambiguous image depicting either a goblet, or two facing profiles. Because of the image's bistable nature, it is also classified as an "ambiguous illusion.
References
Ninio, J. (2001). The science ofillusions.Trans-lated by Philip, F. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Rubin, E. (1915). Synsoplevede figurer. Copenhagen: Gyldenhal.
Dictionary of Hallucinations. J.D. Blom. 2010.