Are you left- or right-brained? Take the test!

it's a metaphor for life: never blink

I saw clockwise & I could not see a way to reverse it. I isolated every section of the body and tried to make it reverse & it would not. I tried it on & off for two hours & it seemed to me that looking at the half-circle made by the shadow especially it was logically clockwise & those who saw it otherwise were mad or liars.

Suddenly I can only see it the other way round & the other way seems impossible now & I want it to go back.

I'm waiting for that to happen. So far I can only see her going clockwise and it's driving me insane.

Oh my god. Suddenly I can only see it the opposite way from what I've been saying is the only possible way all day.

xpost!!

try just looking at the feet

Whoa, now the new trick for me is to look at her shadow and concentrate on her moving the opposite direction.

My brain is boggled.

i bet if you took an mri of your brain when you're concentrating on the switch it's a big image of your brain giving you the finger

^^^^word

My new thing is to try to stop the extended foot at the 45 deg points, so it seems like she's just wagging it back and forth in front of her. Once I get that working then I can mostly choose when I let it just keep going around in the same direction.

So this is what this image is all about. I've seen it uploaded to delicious like a 100 times in the last week. That, and the "changing alphabet".

I can't make her counter-clockwise, but i did notice that she's got nipples.

I thought this was simply a matter of whether you thought about looking at her turn from the top or the bottom. OK WTF NOW SHE'S GOING THE OTHER WAY NEVER MIND

what bearing does left-handedness / right-handedness have on this?

also is this real science at all?

It certainly qualifies as weird science.

she changes direction regardless of whether i want her to or not. very dizzying.

Same here, she was going anti clock wise, and I was thinking "oh I cant see how I could make that look any dif...." then blink, suddenly she's going the other way? AND NOW I CANT FORCE IT :(

OK somehow looking at her shadow helps me flip.

I feel carsick :(

wow, that is something. i saw clockwise and it took a long, long time to figure out how to see the other way - i had to put my hand over the screen so i could only see the one foot and really, really focus on making it turn counter clockwise

This is like magic eye pictures, ow my freaking head.

what characterizes the left brain and right brain?

internal phrenology

No matter how much I look at this, it seems like she's moving in a clockwise direction. When I scroll down and hold the mouse so that it freezes when I come back up, she clearly starts moving in a clockwise direction as soon as I let go. Looking at the shadow and everything. It disturbs me a bit that there's a whole perspective on this thing that I'm missing. I just got results from a psych test that said my visual/spatial skills are seriously underdeveloped in comparison to my verbal skills (is that left vs right?) and I fear this might confirm it.

yeah... but that's pretty normal. the vast majority are strong in either direction... rare are those in the middle.
m.

Hm, by the distinctions here, though, I would have thought that I'm ultra-left-brained.

im ascared like sundar!

Now I get it.

http://koti.mbnet.fi/diablosk/itam/random/dancer2.gif

Holy shit!

(Oddly, the moment I scroll away and look back, she's going clockwise again.)

Huh. Now she's just kind of wildly switching back and forth.

what characterizes the left brain and right brain?

-- CaptainLorax, Tuesday, 9 October 2007 01:54 (3 hours ago) Link

internal phrenology

-- remy bean, Tuesday, 9 October 2007 01:55 (3 hours ago) Link

Yes, exactly. Remy otm.

This is a fun metafilter thread, packed with links.

Even better: this article about what happens to a brain when half (yes, half!) of it is removed. Short answer: it adapts.

The human brain is literally the most complicated organ... system... thing in the known universe. Literally.

This is some hilarious prank you're all playing on me, isn't it? She is clearly spinning clockwise. No amount of blinking, squinting, looking away or anything else is making it change.

Even better: this article about what happens to a brain when half (yes, half!) of it is removed.

I feel I should re-emphasize this. This is a really good article.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/07/03/060703fa_fact

Still counterclockwise & no switching at all. :-/

Now I can see her moving anticlockwise when I look at the one with the blue leg, but the original is still clockwise only.

When I opened this thread she was going anticlockwise and I couldn't make her switch. Then I went to the article and while I was skimming through the text the picture loaded there and she was going clockwise and I couldn't make her go back. I don't know if that's just because the clockwise list was so much cooler that my brain decided it needed to be a clockwise person, or because of where the article layout makes your eyes rest, or...

But still definitely mostly anticlockwise. Dammit. I wanted to be an artistic type. It's not like I'm too hot at logical things.

(I am more inclined to believe this is to do with how uneven my sight is in each eye than anything else, but still, neat picture.)

I hate it when an animated gif ruins your hopes and dreams. So sad. But it happens all the time.

I couldn't see it any other way aside from clockwise, though when I tried the feet-only method and squinted hard I could get it to go half-way anticlockwise (so instead of going in a circle she kept waving her foot about first one way then the other). It was quite a strain. With the blue leg I can see her going anticlockwise - I was trying to get that kind of mental imagery in the first place, but my mind just wouldn't accept it.

Can someone make a clockwise colored leg gif? (or is it already? It only confirms it's going counterclockwise for me)

seems like being able to switch her direction (imagining her orbiting leg as it passes the central leg as pointed-away from you instead of toward you or vice versa) would be extra-right brained/spatial.

you gotta love those lists... if you're lefty, you're reality based... if you're righty, you can "get it". lol.

m.

I kinda want all that left/right brain stuff to be true just to disagree with kenan.

Oh my god she's doing it! Look at her go!

I can make her go either way just by thinking about it - either glancing away, closing my eyes momentarily, or focussing on one spot - but it defaults to anti-clockwise when I come fresh to it from elsewhere.

(easiest cheat way to make it go otherwise for those having trouble is to scroll your screen so you can only see her legs - you shouldn't have any problem visualising which leg is crossing in front of which from there - keep that in your head and scroll up. I'm guessing this is what my brain is doing when I'm looking at the whole thing, but if it doesn't work like that, then this might help?)

I'm a total left-brainer

I kinda want all that left/right brain stuff to be true just to disagree with kenan

it's bollocks, and kenan is absolutely OTM. yes, the left and right cerebral hemispheres function in slightly different ways -- and can affect perception in some surprisingly different ones. but to reduce this to "left-brainer" and "right-brainer" as personality types is nothing more than pure pish.

and the differences in perception claimed by ILX0rs looking at this example are almost certainly nothing to do with hemispheres. i'm not confident enough to make a proclamation about this with complete certainty -- going back to university has made me substantially more circumspect, which can only be a good thing -- but i'm confident enough to, say, bet my bollocks on it.

bizarrely, i was reading a lot about such stuff this morning in the uni library. if you're not careful, i'll start posting large tranches of it here :)

I can't think of a single thing I would bet my bollocks on that I wouldn't proclaim about with complete certainty. Then again, I like my bollocks.

I've perfected it so I can get her to go anti-clockwise by glancing at the bottom left corner of the gif and clockwise by glancing at the bottom right corner. I am controlling her with my brain omg!

... by glancing at her bottom

actually, i think a more interesting division is between those who noticed the nipples and those who didn't.

More of a gaze than a glance, but yes :)

xpost there were people who didn't notice nipples? Concentrate ffs!

I can see the one with the blue leg (thanks!) go anti-clockwise. But I can't can't can't make the real one do it.