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I did my survey on people’s reactions to an ambigious image of a woman and a skull. The picture was a black and white drawing of a woman sitting at a vanity table and staring into a mirror, or, if you see it another way, it is a picture of a giant skull. I noticed that when this picture was shown in class, many people had very different reactions to it. I, personally, could not see the woman in the picture until it was pointed out to me, yet there was another girl who was the complete opposite and could not see the skull. So I asked fifteen random people in dorm to look at the picture and tell me what they saw first, whether they could see the second picture without bring told it was there, how long it took them to be able to see the second picture, what caused them to see the second picture, and how they feel about being able to see both pictures. I choose these questions because of the diversity with which our CSEM class responded to this and other ambiguious figures in class. In class, not only did people see each picture differently, showing the different ways with which all of our brains view the world, but some people also objected to seeing these different images. They objected to seeing these images because in order to see both images you have to change the way your brain views the world. Therefore, I went into the survey expecting very diverse results, based not only on what I had esperienced firsthand in CSEM, but because I knew all of these people personally and they were all raised in completely different environments and all have very different opinions about the world. I was therefore beyond surprised as I went around to everyone individually and got almost identical answers from everyone. Everyone I showed the image too saw the skull first, then almost immediately, without being told saw the second image of the woman. Excepting two people who needed to be told about the secondimage. They all noticed the image fairly quickly and most for similar reasons, such as moving away from the object or as simple as taking a second lokk at the picture. I also was surprised by how everyone said that they were ok with being asked to change the way their brain works in order to see both images. At first I was surprised by these responses, but then one of the people I surveyed said the reason she liked the ambigious picture was that she liked having her views of the world changed and challenged. So, I thought that viewed in this sense, my results for that question made sense, Bryn Mawr is a place of open-minded women who are at the college for the purpose of being exposed to newideas, opinions, and experiences. This conclusion made the fact that everyone I asked could see both images without prompting and that they enjoyed the images, because they are open minded intellectuals who all view the world differently but areopen enough to view it multiple ways at the same time. But this only made me curious about why everyone saw the skull before the woman. Everyone could see both, so why the skull first? I thought maybe it was the simple solution that the skull was the bigger image and all white so it is much more striking, but I could not help thinking of the girl in class who could not see the skull. So, I thought maybeb it has something to do with what the image actually is. The skull is a picture that can inspire fear in many because it reminds us of our mortality and that the same fate awaits us all and the iamge of the woman was one of beauty. I believe this also has a lot to do with the student body woith Bryn Mawr. Even though I have only been here for a limited time I have found that not only are people here opneminded, they are not superficial. I have found that the average student at Bryn Mawr is more likely to have a conversation about religion and the meaning of life then about celebrities and what the new fall fashions are. We are all much more focused on our mortality, on worrying or learning about things that are more important for us to learn in our short time here, rather than on appearances, which are fleeting, and being superficial. Keeping this in mind, it made much more sense that everyone saw the skull first.