Gayle Madwin ([info]queerbychoice) wrote,
@ 2007-10-17 16:43:00
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Current mood: surprised
Current music:silence

A Journal Entry That Is Not About Susan (For Once)
[info]mariness linked recently to a dancing woman who tells you which half of your brain is dominant. For me the dancing woman mostly turns clockwise, which apparently means I'm right-brained, although I'm also right-handed. I can occasionally make the dancing woman turn counter-clockwise if I cover up my left eye and look away from the screen and concentrate of making her turn counter-clockwise in my peripheral vision before I look directly at her. But it's difficult, and even when I succeed at it, she tends to switch back to clockwise a few minutes later. Or if I leave the page and then come back to it, she always reverts to turning clockwise. I was aware that I have more right-brained tendencies than the typical right-hander, but I wouldn't have guessed that the tendencies were so pronounced.

I'm also a bit confused about why the dancer appears to be pictured naked. Her silhouette has plainly visible nipples. Why? How is this relevant to determining brain dominance? It seems to me that when a news story that has nothing to with nakedness calls for a picture of a person, standard procedure is to depict the person in question with clothes on. It can't even be argued that depicting her naked is supposed to make her more generic and free of any culture-specific modifications, because she has her hair up in a pony tail. Why would she bother to put her hair up but not bother to put on clothes?

Anyway, which way does she turn for you? Are you surprised by it?


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[info]legolastn
2007-10-17 11:57 pm UTC (link)
I was just looking at this through a different link, strange.

I mostly see it clockwise, meaning right-brained, which fits with my handedness but in day-to-day interactions I probably fit more left-brained traits...although I do clearly have my right-brained tendencies.

I didn't notice her nipples before but now that you say something I can see it and it is kind of...well, creepy, actually.

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[info]ariiadne
2007-10-18 12:02 am UTC (link)
I also commented on her nudity, though Colin then said that it comes from some kind of standard nude human computer model that also gets used for other things. Which, okay, I've got nothing against nudity so that's fine with me.

It's interesting that it turns counter-clockwise for me, though I don't necessarily buy the theory that it reveals something about how our brain works (especially because I really don't consider myself to be the things it says I'm supposed to be, heh).

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[info]orangebeaver
2007-10-18 12:49 am UTC (link)
I saw her going anti-clockwise, and that fits in with the description, because I am absolutely left-brained. I can write like a typewriter and draw and do all sorts of things with my right hand, but nothing with my left.

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[info]susanlizr
2007-10-18 12:56 am UTC (link)
totally clockwise: can't even get how anyone could make her go counterclockwise. also have no issues with the nudity. Funny; I pride myself on being left-brained.

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[info]exterra
2007-10-18 03:38 pm UTC (link)
me too.. how is it possible for her to be going both directions? i usually think of myself as a split between the two, though slightly more rightbrained.

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[info]safiiru
2007-10-18 03:10 am UTC (link)
As discussed in the comments here, the deal with this is that a dancer spinning in either direction would cast roughly the same shadow; or, to put it another way, while we can tell when the dancer is facing left or right, we can't tell the difference between facing towards us or away from us. I'm rather skeptical of whether this reveals anything about how anyone's brain works, but, who knows, there might be a convincing argument out there for this.

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[info]keryx
2007-10-18 03:39 am UTC (link)
So, is the figure actually changing direction or not? Because each time I look away and look back, it changes direction from my perception.

Is it in fact always spinning counterclockwise?! How is this possible?!

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[info]queerbychoice
2007-10-18 04:04 am UTC (link)
The figure is not changing direction, but whether it looks like it's spinning clockwise or counter-clockwise depends on which of her legs you interpret as being in front at any given time. It's a completely subjective interpretation. Sometimes she looks to me like she's changing directions, too. But I have to work at it to interpret her as going counter-clockwise, whereas she changes back to clockwise for me on her own.

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[info]esk
2007-10-18 03:45 am UTC (link)
i think i'm much more of a left-brained person, but i definitely see her going clockwise. it makes me a bit dizzy to even try to see her spinning the other direction. i have messed-up vision, though - it's impossible for me to see those "magic eye" things, for example - so i tend to think that's the more likely explanation.

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[info]rhekarid
2007-10-18 06:23 am UTC (link)
My eyes tend to drift more to the fact that she's slowly bobbing up and down. Is she floating? Is this a slow-motion of her spinning so fast she's helicoptering in midair?

Ignoring that, I see her moving clockwise, and cannot begin to imagine how she would be going counterclockwise. At all. In fact, focusing on the image regardless of how I'm trying to see it spin, rapidly gives me a headache. But like above I have terrible eyes, have never successfully done a magic eye, etc.

According to those brief lists of right and left brain features I seem to be pretty evenly half and half.

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[info]normlessness
2007-10-18 10:12 pm UTC (link)
I think it's some pop-psychology bullshit. What little it has to do with the brain has to deal with perception and ability to understand three-dimensional drawings. It has more to do with those 3D drawings that if you look hard enough you can see something than with right or left brains.

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[info]susanlizr
2007-10-18 10:33 pm UTC (link)
sounds right to me. I can never see those stupid magic eye things. I guess that's why she only goes clockwise for me.

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[info]cappucinogrrl
2007-10-19 02:23 am UTC (link)
It really seems like she's changing direction after a few minutes...

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[info]cappucinogrrl
2007-10-19 02:26 am UTC (link)
Yeah, they change which leg is elevated/at an angle after every few minutes, which is why she appears to change directions.

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[info]demonista
2007-10-19 07:02 am UTC (link)
clockwise. don't think that actually means anything tho

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[info]kk0isonlymyname
2007-10-20 12:11 am UTC (link)
She was going anti-clockwise to me. And she refused to change direction for about 10 minutes of continuous staring and will power. Finally she turned clockwise, but that might have been because it changes every few minutes (in which case the whole thing is a farce, notwithstanding the left/right brain dichotomy, which we should apparently take with a grain of salt).

I aced my logic test today so that could be seen as confirmation ;) But then, I'm an INTP (iNtuitive), and a philosopher, and tend to 'get' things a lot (related to my interest in psychedelia). I think mostly it's a false dichotomy.

Or maybe I just have a well-developed corpus collosum ;)

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[info]frankepi
2007-10-21 11:31 am UTC (link)
started anti-clockwise. when i read the other material on the page and looked back she was going clockwise. repeated with similar results.

i'm legally blind in my left eye, which may impact the results.

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[info]mellen22
2007-10-22 04:31 pm UTC (link)
With about a minute of concentration I could get her to switch directions, and she would stay going that direction without effort.

I started counter-clockwise. Like others, I don't think that it reflects anything about my mind, especially since I think I'm more left-brained, although I hang out with engineers and geeks most of the time, so I might just be more left-brained in comparison.

The nakedness doesn't bother me. People generally like to stare at naked women. (IMHO: wither gay, straight, male, female, etc.) If it was a naked telephone or light pole, we wouldn't all be clicking through to see it. The pony tail also seems logical. Long, straight hair is generally considered feminine and attractive. Shadows of women with long, straight hair hanging down would make for a more confusing image.

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