Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Right or left brain? (UPDATED)

I have to admit that this has me stymied. As hard as I have tried (and I have given myself a headache in the attempt!) I cannot see the dancer turning any way but clockwise...but supposedly that means that I'm right-brain dominant. And right-brain dominant I have never been.

Can anyone explain this strange moving picture? And how anyone could see it turning counter-clockwise? And why I'm supposedly "fantasy-based" and good at "spatial perception" (ha!) and an "impetuous risk-taker"? I'm so confused.

*UPDATED*
Gabe can see it going both ways, but only if he sort of looks at it from the corner of his vision. After he said that, I tried it...

turns out that if I look straight at it, I see her going clockwise. But if I look elsewhere and see her in my peripheral vision, she's going counter-clockwise.

I don't know what that says about me. :)

9 comments:

Stephanie S said...

Hey, Em,
I saw it turning clockwise, too. Then I focused on the shadow under the foot and was able to turn the direction from there up.
Because of the hand and foot positions, it seems actually biased toward clockwise.

Sarah said...

I can't see it counter, either, and I kept thinking, "Well, I would have thought I could at least FUNCTION as left-brained." But then I gave it up.

;)

Kellan said...

Okay ... my teenage daughers and I watched this thing for a long time and we each (the 2 of us) say it going clockwise one minute and then it would switch (really). And then we realized that we could control it by following the foot with your finger - moving the circle the foot makes, clockwise first and then purposely reversing it. It is a lot of fun - that crazy dancer! See ya.

Anonymous said...

I saw it as counter-clockwise (not shockingly). :-) Although once I made myself see it as clockwise, I couldn't change it back...

Heather

Anonymous said...

Oh wow. I saw it counter-clockwise, but then I looked at another page and when I looked back at it, it was going clockwise! And it kept switching every time I looked away and then looked back.

ACMe said...

i see it mostly as counter-clockwise(which surprised me, because I'm really not a math oriented person) but the peripheral vision thing worked too, so that I could see her going clockwise. then I was looking at her, but from an agnle, and saw her moving clockwise, and sometimes watching her straight on, it changed, I guess that means that I'm a little bit of both? Hm...

lasselanta said...

My first impression was strongly clockwise... I could only make it go counter-clockwise after I figured out how it worked. I'm not even going to try to analyse that. :-)

Thanks for the break from grading...

Chris said...

Hey Emily!
The first time I saw it it looked like she was turning clockwise. But if you stare at it long enough you can figure out how to make her turn either direction!

When I looked at the Right - Left brain descriptions I realized that I fit in with almost all of them!

Fun stuff!
Christopher

Jonathan said...

what a load of bunk - I can only make it go clockwise, and guess what, I'm an engineer. I don't think I fit the right brain mold. At all. And I know about 50 people that will back me up on that ;)