Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Fun with Polls The Right Brain vs the Left Brain

My friend Macca showed me this just before lunch today. I saw it going clockwise, but my other friend, Cathy, kept seeing it changing directions. I tried to make it go anti-clockwise, but it stubbornly refused. I went to lunch and forgot about it.

After lunch, Macca told me that he'd discovered that you had to watch the legs to get it to change direction. And it worked! I got it to go anti-clockwise!

So now, instead of watching the dancer spin, I can make her pivot on the spot.

At first it was clockwise only. I couldn't imagine it going the other direction. But as I stared at it, it suddenly switched. Now I, too, can make it go in either direction. However, it usually starts in the clockwise spinning direction when I first look at it. Not always, but mostly.

I write software for a living, and mostly feel I live in the left-brain world - so this surprised me. I have a great love of art, and have read the book "Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain" many times (and practiced the exercises many times as well). I've found that if I'm having difficulty with figuring out a problem, I'll "push it into the right side of my brain" and let it stew while I work on something else.

What usually happens is that the solution "pops" into my consciousness, fully formed, at the most unexpected times (like while I'm watching TV, sleeping, in the shower, mowing the yard...). My right side worked on the problem for me while I was doing other things.

Cool pic/exercise!

She was going counter-clockwise when I first looked. Then I went to scroll down and blinked because she had suddenly changed direction. I tried the 'looking at the legs' thing, but I can't seem to "make" it happen. If I look away for a second or two it seems to be about 50/50 how she'll be spinning when I look back.

I thought clockwise to start, but then it went anti-clockwise and I couldn't make her go the other way again.

It would be interesting to do a left handed/right handed comparison in this regard. I'm right-handed so I use my left brain more. That's right, isn't it? - pardon the pun. So it stands to reason that I would see her going anti-clockwise, like the majority of the population.

It is said after all, that only left handed people are in their right minds.

Interesting. Or am I talking a load of crap?

...Scratch what I just said. I've just tried again and now she's going the other way.

How odd. It's going clockwise for me, and I can NOT make it change. Between the angle of the feet and the shadow below, I can only see it going clockwise. From the descriptions, I seem to be a mix of the two. And I'm right-handed.

I'm with gr8tshades - I think it randomly switches and they're just having a laugh at our expense.

There's just no way you can "make" something go 'right to left' or 'left to right' in a moving image that isn't already programmed to be there. If it was a stationary image, sure. But it's not.

I clicked the wrong button on the poll! I see it as counter-clockwise.

Weird. Now ALL I can see is her spinning clockwise.

It's like those infernal 3D pics that were so popular in the early 90's. Maybe if I take my contacts out and squint she'll go the other way again.

Or maybe, subconsciously, I just don't like being labeled "normal".

I voted for counter-clockwise, because that's how I initially saw it. At first I was dumbfounded as to how it could possibly move another direction. Then, staring at the legs for a while (actually, I think it was the space where the shadow of the foot and the foot almost meet), she changed direction. After a little practice, I can now get her to change direction at my will. I feel powerful!

I'm still a little baffled how someone could create an animated image to test this - mindblowing, it is!

Sara

P.S. I'm right-handed.

Clock-wise for me. And no matter what I do, she refuses to go the other way around. Most likely it's my brain saying, once that way, always that way. But interesting that it can be seen either way!

Saskia

I totally agree. And me being left handed has absolutely nothing to do with it. :p

I wish I'd thought of the comparison of left and right handed people at the time I started this poll. It won't let me edit the poll itself, only the text beforehand.

When I first saw it she was going clockwise... then when i looked at it again she was going counter-clock wise.

Then after staring at it forever with my co-workers (one of who thinks it is a gif that is made that way and doesn't have anything to do with your brain no matter how much I tell her I'm seeing something different) it started back the other way.

LOL I think I concentrate to hard because it is only by accident that she changes direction.

Very interesting. At first I could only see it going Clockwise - but then I did as suggested and concentrated on the legs. Now I can pretty much go back and forth at will.

Oh, but there is only one place during the spin where I can make it change - when the legs cross each other. Anyone else find that?

ML

Does having "Dial up" make any difference

It only goes clockwise...and very... very... slowly...<snoooooor>

...ah, me time....

I must be hardcore right-brain. I've been staring at her and trying the leg thing for a good five minutes, and I think anyone who sees a counter-clockwise movement is absolutely crazy LOL. Or maybe I am... *raised eyebrow*

JD

fun poll

For those that think it was just made that way...

Being the geek that I am, I deconstructed the gif and it is made up of only 34 frames, not nearly enough for there to be a 'fix in the mix'.

It truly is all in your head...

James, who first saw it counter clockwise and then when I went to change something on my other screen, it changed direction. It would never change while I was watching it, only when I was indirectly looking at it.

James

All I see is the default girl from Poser 4... *giggles madly* I am such a dork that instead of checking what the poll was about, I marveled at the fact that I could ID which 3D model they had used to make the animation with.

...for the record, though. I can make her switch at will. I close my eyes a sec, she's going one way. Do it again and will her to go the other way and she does.

I'm feeling like the emperor has no clothes here! James is right - it's a GIF! The direction of spin is predetermined - we can't control it.

Ah, the power of the mind to delude itself.

At first all I saw was clockwise. Then I started staring at her feet (her right foot specifically, and the shadow it casts) and it switched to counter-clockwise. Now I can make it switch back and forth, but it takes a little effort.