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We work in an environment that requires both creativity and organisation. Many of us come from creative backgrounds and many from more technical or scientific backgrounds. So who out there is left brained and who is right brained?

Do you see the dancer turining clockwise or anti-clockwise?

alt text
(source: news.com.au)

If you see her turning clockwise, you are using more of the right side of the brain and vice versa. If you try to focus, you can see her turn the oppositie way than the way you saw first. When I first tried this I saw her turning anti-clockwise. After a while I could see her turning the other way too, but every time I look again she is always turning anti-clockwise. My girlfriend saw her turning clockwise but couldn't see her turning the other way, even if she really concentrated on it.

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS

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


RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS

creative

uses feeling

"big picture" oriented

imagination rules

symbols and images

So, which one are you...?

16 Answers 16

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Anti-clockwise. Took a loooooong time to see it go the other way.

[startTangent]

Everyone has aspects of left and right "brainedness;" it's just more pronounced in some than others. No one would be creative if they were wholly left-brained, and wholly right-brained people wouldn't be able to hold down a job. I'm so right-handed it's sad, so how does that allow me to suck at math so badly? I tend to think in broad strokes, symbolically, about problems, so does that mean I am unable to be detail oriented?

In my experience, the best creatives are those that split the difference. The worst programmers I've ever seen are those with zero social skills...sure, the work gets done, but god help anyone who has to retool, examine, or extend the code. The worst designers I've worked with are those with the hand skills to do exactly what's requested, but are too literal (left-brained) and don't inject new ideas into the problems they're asked to solve.

[endTangent]

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  • @NoiseJockey Yeah it's way too easy to put people in boxes like that. But it's quite funny to see the differences between people. I just hope no-one says that she's not spinning at all! That would be worrying! Nov 23, 2010 at 18:27
  • "She?" You mean there's a person in that image? :-) Nov 23, 2010 at 18:31
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little tip - to turn her back, simply look at her shadow of a foot below for sometime... ;-)

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  • I recognised nearly instantly that on need only track her shadow to make her turn the other way but I simply cannot see her turning clockwise.
    – Kurt Human
    Nov 24, 2010 at 6:46
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I can turn that picture in any direction.

Normally im right handed (left hemisphere), but last year i started to train left hand. So now im ambidextrous.

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I've done this test before, and I am getting the same results that I had last time.

When I first looked at the picture it was turning anti-clockwise. No matter how much I tried to see it going the other way, it wouldn't change. Then I looked away to read some more text and then in the corner of my eye I noticed it switch to clockwise. It has switched over twice since, but now it is pretty much stuck on clockwise.

I'm wondering if I do something else for half an hour and come back to it what the result would be.

I was actually born left handed, which uses the right side of your brain. However, when I young I broke my left arm, which has made it weaker than my right arm/hand. I actually use my right arm just as much, if not more than my left in most activities. Except writing, I can't write right handed, no matter how hard I try I just can't do it. Anything else I do is pretty much ambidextrous, such as playing sports, using a mouse (although, its normally right handed) etc.

Update: Well I've come back to it after a short while, and she was spinning anti-clockwise again, but the moment I started reading what was on the screen she flipped to clockwise and stayed that way.

1

Clockwise, and can't seem to do the other way around

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haha, that's quite funny. I'm extremely right handed, and uncoordinated with my left side in general, close to blind in the left eye. It's as if I've had a stroke or something. Yet I see it turning clockwise, and can't for the life of me see it going the other way.

I would say that I match some of the descriptors for each of the hemispheres. Interesting test. But I wonder how accurate it is.

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I see it turning clockwise, and can't see her turning the other way.

1

Clockwise for me.

Then looked at it again later, and I seem to be able to switch back and forth...ALMOST at will. Still dominantly clockwise though.

1

She's doing both, it goes to say something about the duality of nature.

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Most of the time clockwise for me it seems. I'm right handed and left footed. @Pretaeperon works for me I can keep moving her in my mind clockwise and anti-clockwise by watching that shadow.

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I was told you can make the direction switch by thinking about something emotional/creative and then thinking about something rational (like math or reading).

I can see both directions, might have something to do with the fact that I'm left-handed but both hands are developed because of years of piano lessons, and I'm combining creative and rational skills every day at work (and study before that). (and I'm right-footed, left-handed with any hand- or racket related ball sport yet play guitar, play drums, use scissors and use a mouse with my right hand. Weird mixture.

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I can totally see it both ways. If I get stuck on one way, I just look away from the image for a few seconds, and it'll systematically turn the other way. Works every time. So I guess I am both, creative and technical.

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Clockwise all the time.

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Clockwise - the only way I can make it go the otherway looking at it upsidedown then momentarily when I am the right way up again it goes anti-clockwise -

1

I see it clockwise and simply cannot comprehend the anti-clockwise movement. The funny thing is I am very left brained it we go by the list of characteristics in the original posting. I have always been quite skeptical of this left brained right brained analogy as it is not entirely concrete. But it is lots of fun though to try and practice on such puzzles as the above. Got dizzy though.

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Anti-clock wise, on the other hand, I'm a software developer and sound-engineer/musician, so I try to combine creativity and practicality every day. Sometimes it's a struggle i'd say, some other times stuff are much more clear...

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