Right-Brained or Left-Brained?

I just saw this on Daily Kos and it's the coolest thing on the Internets EVER.

Check out the spinning lady. Which way is she spinning?

Some people see her spinning clockwise and some counter-clockwise.

This is not a trick.

And what's really cool is, if you stare at it long enough (different people focus on different parts of her body to do this), she might change directions.





Now, in THEORY, if you see her spin clockwise, you are right-brained.

And in THEORY, if you see her spin counter-clockwise, you are left-brained.

(I am not sure the definitions are quite that easy, especially since you can perceive her changing directions, but it's cool nonetheless.)

And to refresh your memory, thanks to this site, I remind you:

The Left Brain
...is associated with verbal, logical, and analytical thinking. It excels in naming and categorizing things, symbolic abstraction, speech, reading, writing, arithmetic. The left brain is very linear...

The Right Brain
...functions in a non-verbal manner and excels in visual, spatial, perceptual, and intuitive information. The right brain processes information differently than the left brain. For the right brain, processing happens very quickly and the style of processing is nonlinear and nonsequential...The right brain has been associated with the realm of creativity.


So I ask, which way does she spin for you?

(My answer is in the comments.)

Comments

  1. First of all, I see her spinning clockwise. If I stare at her head or the shadow of her feet, she will sometimes change direction. But then she'll pop right back to going clockwise.

    I would not be surprised to find out that I am right-brained with the occasional flirtation with linear thought.



    p.s. for those of you thinking that she just automatically changes direction, she doesn't. I'm here in my office with 4 other people and all of us saw her in different directions at different times.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Okay, she spins clockwise for me and as long as I have stared, I have not been able to see her spinning the other way. But I would consider myself more left-brained than right, if anything.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I get counterclockwise, and like jess, can't get the opposite no matter what I do.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Isn't that crazy?

    It took me a good 10 minutes of off-and-on staring before I could get her to spin counter-clockwise. Then she would just go in different directions willy nilly.

    Now she just occasionally goes counter, but I can't keep it there!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I tried looking at it a couple times, and both times it starts with counter-clockwise, quickly changes to clockwise and then I have a hard time getting it back to counter-clockwise. I have no idea what that means, but that thing is cool!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well, Shan - It COULD mean that you were sort of born or are pre-programmed to be left-brained, but have grown to actively perceive more with your right/creative brain. Which would be cool.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Clockwise, unless my attention wanders and I inadvertenly look at her out of the corner of my eye, then she goes counter-clockwise.

    Which probably means that I'm insane.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I can't possibly make her go the other way. She's going clockwise for me.

    Oh, oh wait. That was totally freaky. Staring at the feet and the shadow part, made it go counter-clockwise. ...and now i'm all dizzy.

    Very cool...

    ReplyDelete
  9. oh, and i would consider myself left-brained, too.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Okay I see her going counter clockwise and I have spent more minutes than I would care to mention trying to make her go clockwise and just can't!!

    I guess this just confirms what I have known all along... I don't have a creative bone in my body! Really, it's true. I can't even draw stick people.

    ReplyDelete
  11. that bitch won't stop going clockwise no matter how i look at her! but i am so incredibly terrible with spatial stuff. and seem to excel in reading and writing. (not that you can tell from my comments here, but i swear!)

    this is going to drive me crazy. if i don't hurl first.
    :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. I see her both ways by predominately clockwise. Now, when I took my GRE's I scored in the top 5 percentile for analytical reasoning. I am extremely analytical. I teach chemistry at the college level for goodness sakes. So, my point is, clockwise, counterclockwise...will this really tell which part of the brain is dominate (if one side of the brain can really be classified as dominate)?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Well, she started out clockwise for me, but after about 30 seconds or so, she seemed to change to counter-clockwise. THEN she changed back, and then changed again!

    I finally had to stop looking - - I wasn't sure which way I was spinning after awhile! (And it would have been VERY unprofessional to fall out of my chair from a dizzy spell here at work!) :-)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Man,

    At first she was clockwise but after starting at her feet and shadow for a few minutes she started going counter. Which is funny since I always considered myself very left brained.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Odd...she started out counterclockwise for me, then about 30 seconds later switched to clockwise, then switched back again. I thought she was on a timer or something, but now I'm not so sure after reading your comments. Maybe I'm well integrated?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Oddly enough, I can see it equally both ways. I'm sure that's a sign of insanity.

    ReplyDelete
  17. That is the craziest thing I have ever seen (perhaps I need to get out more??). At first she was solidly turning clockwise, now I can get her to switch pretty much at will when I drop my gaze to the shadow. Weird.

    ReplyDelete
  18. what the hell! now i canNOT get her to stop going counter-clockwise.

    i wonder if it has to do with what we're thinking about at the time? like before i was in a more creative mode, but now i'm in the middle of a bunch of work things and all concentrating.

    (uh, well maybe not concentrating THAT hard if i'm commenting, but you know...)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Clockwise. But if I scroll down so that only her feet are visible on my screen, and concentrate, and then scroll up v...e...r...y slowly, I can get her to go counter-clockwise.

    Tripy.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I saw clockwise first, then counter, then back to clockwise. Freaky.

    ReplyDelete
  21. She's clearly spinning clockwise.

    The rest of you are just nutjobs.

    That's right, I said it.

    Nut. Jobs.

    ReplyDelete
  22. That has GOT to be wrong. I am the least creative, most analytical person I have ever met, and I can't see anything but clockwise. I stared at it until my eyes burned.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Clockwise all the time. Which surprises me since I am also an annoyingly analytical person.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Finally got it to go the other way by closing my eyes and trying to visualize it, then opening my eyes. Then I couldn't get it to go counter again without repeating the visualization.

    My 8 Random Things are up, if you have nothing better to do.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I just looked again with my fiance, and we both saw it clockwise, and then I scrolled up and then down again slowly so I could only see her head, and briefly I saw her spin counterclockwise and now my fiance thinks I'm crazy. And now I can only see it clockwise again.

    ReplyDelete
  26. The coolest part is that you found this on the internets so it must be true. She switches directions a lot for me, but I'd consider myself more left-brained than right-brained.

    ReplyDelete
  27. ok - the first moment when I saw it - totally counterclockwise, then switched to clockwise as soon as I fully focused, then nothing but clockwise and I was beginning to wonder how many and which of us are crazy, but try this - click on the image and open in a new window so you have TWO images... and now I have one spinning each way. Is it really our perception? I can't even wrap my brain around how that is possible as it seems SO CLEAR. am I nuts?

    ReplyDelete
  28. anonymous from above again - try this: move your finger in front of the image in the opposite direction from the direction you see her spinning in and just focus on your finger spinning. Then let your gaze drift to her and you can see her direction change. AM I REALLY JUST PERCEIVING THIS? IS IT REALLY CHANGING DIRECTION? oooh - crazy-making...

    ReplyDelete
  29. I am right brained. Shocker. Gretchen.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Very interesting Kristy! I see her going both directions, but predominantly clockwise. That doesn't surprise me as I have worked in the engineering fields yet am a writer and musician.

    I'll pass the word.

    ReplyDelete
  31. If I look at her directly she is going clockwise, when I catch her out of the corner of my eye she is usually going counter clockwise unless I'm trying to trick myself into seeing her out of the corner of my eye.

    I can't make her change, but she does change for me.

    I consider myself more right brained.

    ReplyDelete
  32. That's so cool. I've tried it like 10 times now and each time she's clockwise. But when I look away or scroll up slowly, she's counter.

    I'm pretty sure it's just a mass hypnosis device. Plug me into the matrix and lets join her in the spin.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Holy cow, I am dizzy too! It was clockwise first, now it changes at will. That is crazy! I must go search now for the trick. It HAS to be a trick....right?

    ReplyDelete
  34. Claire sent me here on a mission. for me, it spins counter-clockwise. every time i looked at it. i'm so left brained it hurts.

    ReplyDelete
  35. She's clockwise for me, and I can't even fathom how she would go the other direction.

    Now I want to know why I'm not left-handed.

    ReplyDelete
  36. It's different every time I look at (clockwise, more often than counter), but no matter which way she spins, I can't make her change direction without looking away and resetting my brain.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Okay, all you crazypants out there, I have a new theory:

    Either a huuuuge portion of the blogreaders are right-brained (and that's really not so surprising), OR...

    ...I'm wondering if it has more to do with what part of your brain you're using more at the time you're actually looking at the image.

    I tried testing that theory. Like, when I was problem solving I'd quickly look at her and she'd be going counter-clockwise. Then at times when I was off on a mental escapade ("what will I post about next?"), she'd return to spinning clockwise.

    Try it: does it change by what you're thinking/expecting/feeling? (Just curious.)

    ReplyDelete
  38. Well, I just tested my theory again this morning and it isn't working. She just going clockwise. Worked great last night, for whatever reason... tired eyes?

    ReplyDelete
  39. i see her spin both ways... weird.

    ReplyDelete
  40. she switches legs!!!!! It's a trick!
    Take another look and it takes a while, but she switches directions and spins clockwise when standing on her left leg with the right leg lifted....the switches to standing on the right leg with the left leg lifted, wich makes her go counter-clockwise.... you can check to see which leg by focusing on her hips, when she's straight on.
    ....this is definitely a challenge for our brain and spacial perception.... don't let it fool you!

    ReplyDelete
  41. anon, no she doesn't.

    or rather, that's not the point.

    the point is that you can look and see it one way and then see it another -- or not.

    and different people see it differently AT THE SAME TIME. i have stood next to at least 7 other people who saw it differently at the same time as me.

    i'm pretty sure it's just one motion, and one image, and what you see is based on what we want to see/expect to see.

    ReplyDelete
  42. ohmigod.
    i think you're right!
    i was SURE it was a trick. gaaaah!
    *freaking out*

    ReplyDelete
  43. shitfuck, i'm all about ill now! made my coworkers stare at the same monitor as i was. damned if i didn't watch her bounce between clockwise and counterclockwise. 3 o'clock to 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock to 9 o'clock and over and over. during which a coworker saw her continue to spin clockwise.

    we are all queezy now. thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  44. Now I'm finding that if I freeze the image, it'll move in the opposite direction every time I start it again:

    clockwise
    *freeze*
    counterclockwise
    *freeze*
    clockwise
    *freeze*


    etc...

    I'm fascinated.

    ReplyDelete
  45. counter clockwise for me. i wish i could see her spin the other way just so i could see that she really can!

    ReplyDelete
  46. For the first 5 minutes, she was moving anti-clockwise. But now? She's clockwise!! ahhh

    ReplyDelete
  47. i can make her spin any way i want to. it took me about 5 minutes. if you watch her feet as if they start on the right and move left she goes counter but if you look to her feet to go from left to right she spins clockwise...at least for me. what does that make me, a control freak?

    ReplyDelete
  48. She keeps switching back and forth for me, and that makes sense. When I concentrate, she goes left-brained on me. When my eye/mind wanders, she goes right-brained. That's sort of how I work, too.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Actually, this is a trick. Want to prove it. Grab any number of your closest friends. . .or any random person nearby. All of you look at it and note the current direction of rotation. Wait a bit. . .wait a bit. . wait for it. . now, she's switched direction. Again, compare notes. I bet you all say she's spinning clockwise, then now she's spinning counterclockwise. Its not a mass switching of left and right brain. . .it's just a trick where you are further tricked by a statement saying it is not.

    ReplyDelete
  50. keep in mind, you all have to watch it at the same time. If you look at different times, of course the results will vary. I'm not going to bother to time it, but it looks to be on a loop to spin one way for like a minute, then the other way. What this adds up to is that random people viewing at random times will 50% of the time see spinning in a different direction. However, per my instructions above, random people viewing simultaneously will ALWAYS see the same rotation direction.

    ReplyDelete
  51. kamakula - that is exactly what i did, and it is totally different for EVERYONE. i have stood in the same room with the same people at the same distance from the screen, and we had ENTIRELY DIFFERENT RESULTS.

    at first it was just two of us, arguing which way she was going at the very same time.

    you are mistaken.

    which is why this is so cool.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Dude, that is crazy! I can't even look at it more than like a minute, every time I blink she switches directions. Does this mean I have a bad ass corpus callosum and my left and right brains are in some sort of unwinnable battle of perception?

    I think that may be the case.

    ReplyDelete
  53. She spins both ways. If you wait long enough you can actually see her switch directions.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Counter-clockwise, which makes sense, because I'm generally left-brained and have been writing all evening, thereby possibly enhancing my left-brained-ness.

    Briefly she spun clockwise, but then switched.

    But what REALLY concerns me is that I can't stop focusing on her chestular area when I'm trying to make her switch directions!! Does this make me a lesbian?

    ReplyDelete
  55. well, first i had to think about what clockwise means. because first i hate clocks so rarely look at them and secondly most clocks are digital and only spin when i am drunk.
    so, once i established what clockwise means, i realized that i see her spinning clockwise.

    ReplyDelete
  56. cool! i looked at her for awhile..thinking..."hm, she has perky boobs" then she started going counter clockwise. cool!

    ReplyDelete
  57. I think the real point is that we all seem to have too much time on our hands ;)

    ReplyDelete
  58. For the people who think it's just s trick and actually she switches direction....how do you explain her switching which leg she pivots on.

    When she pivots clockwise she's on her left left and when she pivots counter she's on her right. Do you ever see her switch legs to change direction? If she was just switching direction the leg she pivots wouldn't change.

    ReplyDelete
  59. I was a little distracted by her breasts too. But I only see clockwise, no change in direction. :/

    ReplyDelete
  60. all i get is clockwise, too. this is fascinating.

    ReplyDelete
  61. I, too, can get her to switch directions by focusing on the shadow of her feet. My concentration is such that I can't remember if she spun deasil or widdershins at first, but if she switches directions...I assume that means I spend too much time trying to "beat" internet puzzles!

    Seriously, I'd go with Kristy's theory. Maybe it depends what you're working on!

    ReplyDelete
  62. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  63. Seriously, what's the point of this? She spins both ways, so why did they bother with the analsys. What are the trying to prove? That we have too much time on our hands to wait & watch her switch?

    ReplyDelete
  64. the key to this is her shadow. if you scroll down so that you're only able to view her shadow, it appears that she is spinning counter clockwise. if you view her entire body, it appears that she is spinning clockwise. this is because one's shadow will always be moving oppposite of one's body in motion.

    ReplyDelete
  65. anon 1:50 - if i scroll down so i can only see her shadow, it appears to be going clockwise.

    ReplyDelete
  66. I've been pondering this for a couple days now.

    I can totally make her change at will now. Not if I'm looking directly at her but out of the corner of my eye and I can tell when she switches.

    When I'm blog surfing and see her for the first time she's always going clock-wise.

    If I take a break from work but am still focused on work issues she starts out counter clock wise.

    I think that whichever part of your brain you are using definitely affects your result. However I think that your first impression is probably pretty accurate as to which part of your brain you favor.

    ReplyDelete
  67. Always, always, always clockwise, and if I look at it any longer while trying to make her go the other way I'm going to kill my keyboard with the puking.

    ReplyDelete
  68. I found that depending on what I was doing (paying bills, coloring, etc.) she changed directions. (I have kids, I'm not just sitting here coloring by myself...not that there would be anything wrong with that though).

    ReplyDelete
  69. oye this is a prank she changes her leg ...

    ReplyDelete
  70. :P is she wearing any clothes?

    ReplyDelete
  71. Oy...this really has nothing to do with "left-brained" or "right-brained" (if such a thing even exists...it's not a scientific idea to say the least, and I'm not sure who started it, but it's a bit irritating!).

    We both use both sides of our brains. You really cannot only use one side unless you were born with only half a brain (it happens). You can adapt to use only one side of your brain if you need to (they used to hack out half of it if someone had seizures) but even then, your brain adapts so that the remaining half takes on the functions of the missing half.

    It's an optical illusion, but not one with any relevance to which half of your brain you think you use more for a set of functions people believe are located in a brain area.

    No offense to people who are adamant about being "left brained" or "right brained"....but our brains are a bit more complicated than that.

    ReplyDelete
  72. studentmd -

    i understand what you're saying, though i have two points.

    1. when someone says they're "right-brained" or "left-brained" i don't think ANYONE is saying they think they ONLY use that part of their brain. they are just identifying which part is predominant. (i also don't think anyone here is convinced that the theory is especially scientific.)

    2. of course it's an optical illusion -- but what makes some people see it one way, and another person see it another? *that* is what makes it so cool.

    ReplyDelete
  73. It's not an optical illusion...I'm sorry, but I've taken it apart by watching it a good...10-15 minutes?
    I know it seems discouraging, but it's not a real test to test your "brain".
    The girl will change direction after a certain amount of TIME.
    Not because your brain starts focusing on it. I left it on for a good seven minutes and came back to see her going to another direction.
    It's a fake. I'm sorry.

    ReplyDelete
  74. anon 6:49, i have no reason to believe you'll come back to see this comment, but it's not a "fake." the image only moves one way, and how you perceive it changes.

    please read through my comments above as to why this is so.

    or, if you refuse to believe me, watch it with more than one person next to you at the same time. you will see it in different directions at the same time.

    ReplyDelete
  75. **TRY IT NAYSAYERS...

    it's like those old illusions where it's a craggy old woman with a big nose vs. a young woman looking away, or the vase that turns into two profiles facing each other. you get your brain thinking one direction, and it's really hard to break. but breaking the mode with which your brain is currently interpreting it is exactly how to make her switch. that's why when people look away, or look at her shadow, they experience the switch.

    she's in silhouette, so when you see the outstretched leg spin around, you sort of assume that there's an overlap. your brain is filling in the informational gap.

    **HERE'S THE KEY: when her outstretched leg is on the right, imagine you're looking at the OUTSIDE of her leg, and think of it swooping from right to left across the screen, IN FRONT of her stationary leg. she will spin clockwise (that's the direction that comes quickest for me). it's REALLY hard to make that switch sometimes.

    when her leg's on the right and you imagine you're looking at the INSIDE of her leg, swooping from right to left BEHIND her stationary leg, and she'll go counter-clockwise.

    the flatter you view the image, the easier it will be to picture the outstretched leg as going in front or behind the stationary one.

    if it's just too much information and you can't make her change, cover up the left side of the image with your hand, so all you see is her leg making the turn on the right. watch where her foot comes out from behind your hand. you WILL be able to imagine it coming from either direction.

    i know it's not a trick, because with a little concentration, i can make her go back and forth without making a full revolution.

    this is so genious!! however did the creator come up with it, i wonder? it really does make you crazy, though, because even though i can make the switch, sometimes i just can't do it right away. you think you have control, you've got a grasp on it, and yet the illusion overpowers you.

    ReplyDelete
  76. P.S. i'm skeptical that the direction you first percieve her spinning connotes your mental proclivities, though i would generally identify myself as a right-brainer, with certain lefty attributes.

    ReplyDelete
  77. I cannot get her to spin counter clockwise to save my life, and do not believe you people who say you can. Okay, fine, I believe you. But - weird!

    ReplyDelete
  78. Can turn her anyway I want, just close my eyes decide which way and open and she spins how I want, can switch directions every second if I want to. A bit more tricky with eyes open but not that hard.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts