Are you right brain or left brain dominant.

[Syntax]

I thought this was pretty neat.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22556281-661,00.html

People often think of me as a left brain dominant person, but every test I've gone through says I'm right. This was by far the quickest and most fascinating test I've seen.

See if you can make it change its spin.

[LightLink]

Niiice. I saw this 2 days ago actually. It went counter-clockwise then. It goes counter-clockwise now. And I can't seem to get it to spin the other way!

[LordArt]

I'm able to get it to go both ways actually. Initially it went counter clockwise, then clockwise then back again. I have to "reposition" my mind to switch it.

[Ogre]

both for me... it switched sometimes when I looked away, but not always.

[Strider]

No matter how much I tried to refocus I can only see her going clockwise.

[LightLink]

Oh I'm awesome.

Only counter-clockwise person so far! And it says that most people would see it counter-clockwise...

[Oyama]

Clockwise. I can get her lifted leg to turn counter-clockwise when it's on the left side, but that's it.

[Kiynethe]

I saw her clockwise, and got so frustrated trying to get her to turn counter-clockwise that I went away and did some math before I tried it again. It worked! =D

[LightLink]

Maybe I should listen to some emotional music...

EDIT - Oh shi-! I was just looking at it all normal, and excited that it was actually going clockwise, and it just switched back to counter-clockwise right before my eyes. Man, it's amazing.

[PsyFactor]

I see her going clockwise normally. However, if I focus on the feet (and specifically the shadow of the feet) for a moment, and time it right, when I look back up she's going counter-clockwise. Interesting effect.

[Modron]

This is incredibly frustrating. When I look at her directly on she only ever goes clockwise, but if I look away and catch her in my peripherary vision, she goes counter-clockwise. But as soon as I look back at her she is clockwise again, no matter how hard I try and make her go the other way.

[Paramemetic]

As a fun thing, this works marvelously, but this does not test right brain or left brain dominance, and in fact those things are myths - while it is true that there exist language structures (Broca's Area, Wernicke's Area, etc.) commonly in the left side of the brain (though variations occur), the brain's function simply doesn't divide this way. The manner in which one thinks, whether they are primarily emotive or primarily reasoning, and so further, has nothing to do with hemispheric dominance.

I don't remember the phenomenon that causes you to see it rotate one direction or the other, but I believe it has to do with reference points. It is an optical illusion. In fact, nearly everyone can cause this to rotate the "other direction" by changing where they look on it.

I'll report back when I find the phenomenon responsible. Sorry to be a scrooge, but this particular bit of pop psychology is almost as insidious as the "humans only use x% of their brain" bit.

Edit: This appears to be a variation of the Wagon-wheel effect, a type of stroboscopic effect. The spinner does not actually spin, it flips back and forth. This creates a temporal aliasing effect that allows us to perceive the dancer as spinning. Because she's not actually spinning, it's possible for her to appear to spin either direction, and as such it's possible for it to flip.

Which direction it begins spinning in has nothing to do with hemispheric dominance (itself a myth), but I'd not be surprised if it had something to do with eye dominance or perspective.

[Jow]

Mainly clockwise for me, but if I dont look at it directly it's counterclockwise. This is one wacky game show.

[Syntax]

As a fun thing, this works marvelously, but this does not test right brain or left brain dominance, and in fact those things are myths - while it is true that there exist language structures (Broca's Area, Wernicke's Area, etc.) commonly in the left side of the brain (though variations occur), the brain's function simply doesn't divide this way. The manner in which one thinks, whether they are primarily emotive or primarily reasoning, and so further, has nothing to do with hemispheric dominance.

I don't remember the phenomenon that causes you to see it rotate one direction or the other, but I believe it has to do with reference points. It is an optical illusion. In fact, nearly everyone can cause this to rotate the "other direction" by changing where they look on it.

I'll report back when I find the phenomenon responsible. Sorry to be a scrooge, but this particular bit of pop psychology is almost as insidious as the "humans only use x% of their brain" bit.

Edit: This appears to be a variation of the Wagon-wheel effect, a type of stroboscopic effect. The spinner does not actually spin, it flips back and forth. This creates a temporal aliasing effect that allows us to perceive the dancer as spinning. Because she's not actually spinning, it's possible for her to appear to spin either direction, and as such it's possible for it to flip.

Which direction it begins spinning in has nothing to do with hemispheric dominance (itself a myth), but I'd not be surprised if it had something to do with eye dominance or perspective.

Alrighty, but which way did it spin for ya?

[Paramemetic]

Alrighty, but which way did it spin for ya?

Both, depending on where on the page it was and where at it I looked, and whether I was looking directly at it.