.

[JI7]

http://www.lightspeed-learning.com/testyourself/testyourself.htm

[Heddi]

1. oh lawd not that again

it's not your brain making it switch directions---the animation itself switches direction.....

[salvorhardin]

7. Actually, the animation isn't switching directions

It's just an ambiguous figure-ground illusion, like the Necker cube. Of course, it has nothing to do with right-left brain dominance either. The idea that right brain dominant people are more creative or left brain dominant people are more logical is about 95% woo anyway. There are functional asymmetries in everyone's brains. For instance, in right handed people speech is predominantly processed in the left hemisphere, but occurs in the right hemisphere too while in some left handed people speech is processed predominantly in the right hemisphere or in both.

The idea that people are either "left-brained" or "right-brained" is just rubbish. Any complex behavior involves multiple brain regions in both hemispheres working together as a whole. The whole left-brained, right-brained thing is second in my book of pop psychology woo only to the notion that we use only 10% of our brain.

Here's the exact same animation with a few lines added to help the brain determine which way the dancer is "spinning". If you look at the left hand dancer, all the dancers should appear to be spinning counter-clockwise. Similarly, if you look at the right hand dancer, all the dancers should be spinning clockwise. The middle dancer is the original animation without the added lines.

[moggie]

8. The added butt detail distracts from the nipples

Now Trotsky won't get ANY work done!

Like Silent3 said, I can get the animation to switch directions by looking at the lower foot, but clockwise (from above) is the most natural direction for me. But your version makes it easier.

[salvorhardin]

11. Thanks

Just to be clear, that's not my version. I stole that from another blogger and I can't remember who. :(

I saw another one that simply put ovoid dots on her head to represent eyes. Shape the dots as if you were looking up at her and she seems to spin one way, shape them as if you were looking down at her and she seems to spin the other way. It's amazing the amount of meaning the brain extracts from such minimalistic information.

[cosmik debris]

9. Thank you.

That helps.

[uppityperson]

10. EXCELLENT! Thank you, I can finally make her go the other way.

watching, watching, watching.

[salvorhardin]

12. It's almost hypnotic isn't it?

Watch her spin, spin, spin... First this way and then that way, around and around and around... Spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, wire me all the money in your bank account, spin, spin, spin, spin... :D

I could never see her go anyway but counter-clockwise either until I saw this version.

[moggie]

2. Haha, "Quantum Photography"

You know it's scientific, because it's got the word "quantum" in the name. Using Quantum Photography (TM), you can assimilate information at more than 1 million words per minute. Strangely, though, this amazing learning technique hasn't taught the website's writer the correct use of apostrophes.

According to that test, I'm a right-brain person, though in fact by the usual reckoning I'm more left-brain. And us lefty-brains are skeptical about the simplistic way this left/right distinction is used by woos. My left hemisphere asks: show me the evidence that that simple animation really reveals anything useful.

[trotsky]

3. I do miserably at that "test".

Because I just watch the nipple shadows.

[TZ]

4. rofl

You ARE deserving of that "evil DU'er" heart I gave you....:P

[drm604]

5. I can't figure out what clockwise and counterclockwise mean in this context.

It's clockwise if you're looking down on her from above, or counterclockwise if you're looking up from below.

[Silent3]

6. Seeing counter-clockwise rotation is most natural for me...

...but I can get myself to see the spinning in the other direction. Concentrating on the lower foot seems to do the trick.

trotsky: The nipple shadows are no help at all.