The story behind the Duck! Rabbit! story that Duchess Meghan read to Archie during his 1st Birthday video

Thanks to the UK's Evening Standard newspaper for publishing this article about the story behind the Duck!Rabbit! story that the Duchess of Sussex chose to read to Arch during yesterday's Save the Children fundraising video. The video's release was timed to coincide with Archie's 1st birthday. 

Here is Laura Hampson's  article published in the ES

The book, which was originally published in 2009 and written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld, is based on the 100-year-old duck-rabbit optical illusion.  

The original drawing was made by American psychologist Joseph Jastrow in 1899 to show that perception is a mental activity as well as what someone sees.​

Jastrow’s research looked at how quickly participants could see the second animal as well as how participants could change their perception to switch between both of the animals.

The research concluded that the quicker the participant can switch between the two, the faster their brain works and the more creative they are.

The research also found that at different times of the year, people were more likely to see one animal over the other. For example, during Easter, people were more likely to see the rabbit first but during October, glimpsing the duck first was more common.