eli5: How come our eyes immediately think the Scottish flag as white stripes instead of blue triangles? How come this occurs for some images and for others it doesn’t (like the flag of england?)

Question

[Click here to see the flag](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Scotland#/media/File:Flag_of_Scotland.svg)

In: 63

Answer 1

One of the things is that it’s a flag. After being exposed to flag for even a short amount of time you consider the rectangle of the flag a ‘field’. A field upon which designed are layed.

Another reason (for this flag at least) is our brain automatically thinks of blue tones as further away. Mountains a few miles away may appear blue, violet or such cool hues due to atmospheric particles reflecting the color of the blue sky. Even further away is the blue sky itself.

In the art term: “Blue Recedes”.