Psychology, Optical Illusion, or Both?

ryan — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 15:25:25 -0700

My friend Jorden forwarded this to our email list and it spurred quite the discussion so I thought I'd stick it up here to share further.

If you see the dancer spinning clockwise it means you're using the right half of your brain. If she spins counter-clockwise it means you're using the left half. The theory is that by watching the direction of her spin you can determine which half of your brain you're using! (Or maybe it's just a random optical illusion?)

The interesting thing is some of us see her spinning one direction, some the other, some see her change directions, and others can't for the life of them just can not get her to change directions.

For me, she spins mostly clockwise but definitely changes directions at time, seemingly randomly, but perhaps I'm actually changing the type of thought I'm engaging in at that moment.

Here's a chart of left vs right brain types of things:

Left Brain (counter-clockwise)		Right Brain (clockwise)
Logical Sequential Rational Analytical Objective Looks at parts		Random Intuitive Holistic Synthesizing Subjective Looks at wholes