A Test for "creative types" ;-)

[miniproject]

What do you see?
Is the dancer turning clockwise, or anti-clockwise?





.. whether you're right or left brain dominates. If you see her turning anti-clockwise, as "most of us would" (says the article, though most of the people, including myself, I've asked about this, actually see it going clockwise first) you tend to use more of your left brain. If you see the dancer going clockwise, you tend to use more of your right brain.

The right brain governs:

uses feeling
"big picture" oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking

And the left brain's functions are:

uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe

... So how did you do? Are you in your right mind? :-P

Don't worry if you see her going clockwise, because right-brain people are cool in my book. They're misunderstood, but valuable souls. I definitely think I'm one of them. However, society does place a lot of importance on intelligence, and a lot of those left-brain functions are pretty damn crucial! We all use both sides of our brains. If you are desperate to see her dance the other way, to feel whole and reassured, but can't, try watching the shadows under her feet, and willing her to turn the other way, or reloading the image until it (seems to) randomly change direction, or as with optical illusions, make your eyes go out of focus, and will her to turn the other way before focussing again. She fits right in here on dreamwidth, because she really does go both ways..

:-P

Comments

[faevii]

I've seen this before, but I don't think it's accurate. The first time, I saw her turning anti-clockwise. A few hours later I saw the picture again and found that she was suddenly turning clockwise. Neither time I could manage to reverse the direction at will, but several more hours later it finally worked. Now I can only see her going anti-clockwise again ...

[miniproject]

It is hard to make her change direction once you see her going one way. Look at your monitor as a blur. Let her become motion. Make her silhouette really out of focus and force your brain to see it going the opposite way, aiming from her feet up. It does work..

But yeah, it seems pretty random which way people see her going. The article says most see her going anti-clockwise, but my buddies are mostly the opposite (even the one who does supersymmetry all day at academic level!)

I love that you have an icon for this occasion! lol

[faevii]

LOL, now she's going the other way again. My brain just can't make up its mind.

It's one of my favourite icons! XD (And appropriate more often than one might think.)

[holyschist]

....I can't see a way for her to be turning counter-clockwise, and I think I'm pretty darn left-brained. The shadows under her feet are also going clockwise. Unless the gif actually changes directions, I don't see how it can be truly ambiguous--her base foot is rotating in a clockwise direction.

[miniproject]

Try making your vision blur out of focus, then willing her motion to go the other way, and when you get the sense she's going that way, focus again up from the feet to the whole image, and it may have changed.

From your posts so far, I'd definitely have put you in the left-brained box.

My friend took the image apart in photoshop to see the layers, and could only see it turning one way. It's a kind of optical illusion that can be viewed two ways.

[holyschist]

Hmmm.

I've seen this one before, although now I'm not remembering what the other image is besides the lady. But I think a static image that contains two things is different from a rotating animation that, if it is truly rotating, can only rotate one direction. I dunno.

(Actually, I sort of reject right/left-brained splits; I think we all use both to some degree and some people are better at switching between and/or integrating modes.)

[holyschist]

Here's an interesting article.

And a page with some suggestion lines to make it easier to switch: http://ofb.net/~whuang/imgs/spin/

Gotta stare at that some more, and probably take it apart in Photoshop. :-)

[holyschist]

Ha, right, I remembered. The young woman has always been much more dominant in that image for me, but I can switch between them, where I can't with the animated dancer.

[miniproject]

It's definitely possible to see the dancer go either way. The trick is to focus on the lower part of the image, let your vision go blurry, and convince your brain the motion is moving in the opposite direction.

Brains are strange. :-)

Anyway, you do seem to be a very left-brained type, and if you can't see the image go anti-clockwise, I think this "test" is baloney.

[holyschist]

Well--I'm not sure I'm left-brained only, more that it's my preferred mode. But I think this test says more about how we process optical illusions than anything else.

(Even on the page with the added guidelines, I had trouble seeing the anti-clockwise version going anti-clockwise consistently.)

[pixiewildflower]

I saw it going one way...then I blinked my eyes and it was going the other way...does that mean I can't make up my mind? :D

[miniproject]

That's happened to me too! lol. I thought it was rigged to change the image now and then. But apparently our brains just do that sometimes. It's really a headwreck huh?

[pixiewildflower]

Indeed it is!

[miniproject]

I'm totally guessing, but maybe it's something like when we look at things, there are "saccades" in our vision - short little blinks that we don't notice. So in one of those, the brain could just flip modes. Who knows! It's weird.

[zoefruitcake]

I see clockwise