Left or Right Brain Test

[kennath7 (imported)]

concentrating on dancer it rotated clockwise, concentrating on background counterclockwise

[Blaise (imported)]

Clockwise. Completely clockwise. Still, clockwise.

[kristoff]

She was dancing like these goddammned mortgage ads all over the net. Oh wait, that was an ad.....

Clockwise; no matter what, couldn't turn her backwards...

[jemagirl (imported)]

She was dancing like these goddammned mortgage ads all over the net. Oh wait, that was an ad.....

Clockwise; no matter what, couldn't turn her backwards...

OK, But was that a reverse mortgage?

[Danya (imported)]

I have trouble looking at a mortgage in any direction, Jemagirl

She was a goin' counterclockwise for me although I could change her apparent rotation direction instantly. Actually, I've always tested as pretty well left/right brain balanced. That may add up to complete imblance!

[daveyjones (imported)]

Oh people. You are getting bamboozled. The dancer periodically switches directions. So, if you happen to watch it while she is turning clockwise, you will interpret the results accordingly. If you happen to watch while she turns counter-clockwise, you would come up with the opposite conclusion. If you watch while the image is loading, you will see clearly that she changes direction, as her pointed leg changes with the direction of turn. She rests on her left leg when going clockwise, and her right leg when going counter-clockwise. This can also be seen on the shadow on the floor surface. It indicates nothing, except for your patience. If you download the images as a .gif file, and then scroll through the images one at a time with Mac Preview or perhaps Adobe Acrobat, you can see the change in orientation from frame 17 to frame 18. Mystery solved. That, I guess, makes me left brained according to their standard. Though mathematicians and scientists are supposed to be right-brained, yet they live for logic and details. These definitions of the human spirit are as useless as all the others. We must all define ourselves.

[Danya (imported)]

That may very well be, Davey, but the truth is, on legitimate tests of this type, including with non-moving objects that can be viewed with more than one orientation, I have no trouble seeing the object either way. I don't view these things as anything more than curiousities, although I can still have fun with them. I've never thought they had any relation at all to my core self. Cool that you picked up the trick

[Blaise (imported)]

Oh people. You are getting bamboozled. The dancer periodically switches directions. So, if you happen to watch it while she is turning clockwise, you will interpret the results accordingly. If you happen to watch while she turns counter-clockwise, you would come up with the opposite conclusion. If you watch while the image is loading, you will see clearly that she changes direction, as her pointed leg changes with the direction of turn. She rests on her left leg when going clockwise, and her right leg when going counter-clockwise. This can also be seen on the shadow on the floor surface. It indicates nothing, except for your patience. If you download the images as a .gif file, and then scroll through the images one at a time with Mac Preview or perhaps Adobe Acrobat, you can see the change in orientation from frame 17 to frame 18. Mystery solved. That, I guess, makes me left brained according to their standard. Though mathematicians and scientists are supposed to be right-brained, yet they live for logic and details. These definitions of the human spirit are as useless as all the others. We must all define ourselves.

That makes sense. I have not yet caught the change.

[jemagirl (imported)]

Oh people. You are getting bamboozled. The dancer periodically switches directions. So, if you happen to watch it while she is turning clockwise, you will interpret the results accordingly. If you happen to watch while she turns counter-clockwise, you would come up with the opposite conclusion. If you watch while the image is loading, you will see clearly that she changes direction, as her pointed leg changes with the direction of turn. She rests on her left leg when going clockwise, and her right leg when going counter-clockwise. This can also be seen on the shadow on the floor surface. It indicates nothing, except for your patience. If you download the images as a .gif file, and then scroll through the images one at a time with Mac Preview or perhaps Adobe Acrobat, you can see the change in orientation from frame 17 to frame 18. Mystery solved. That, I guess, makes me left brained according to their standard. Though mathematicians and scientists are supposed to be right-brained, yet they live for logic and details. These definitions of the human spirit are as useless as all the others. We must all define ourselves.

Davey,

I downloaded the gif as you suggested, but it appears there are only the 34 frames. Just enough for one complete rotation. Unless there is another file that loads alternately or this one gets played backwards from time to time, the only explanation for the reversal is that it is happening in the mind of the viewer.

To see if there might be more than one dancer gif file present on the page I downloaded several iterations at each perceived reversal. After downloading four additional versions of the file I note that they all had the same file name. I then open the files in preview and compared them to each other and found them to be identical.

I also looked at each frame separately and was able to see the figure in any orientation at will.

Wether or not some one is deliberately pulling the wool over our eyes this test is an interesting demonstration of visual perception. The image is void of nearly all the depth clues we take for granted, and without these clues our mind is forced to fill in the details in order to determine the direction of rotation.

The lack of shading for instance defeats the ability to detect occlusion witch is the strongest visual cue in the perception of depth. The only clue as to the correct orientation of the figure is perhaps the foot as you pointed out, but this is very subtle and would not be perceived consciously by most, and that may illustrate the differences of perception between right and left brain.

I'm not discounting that there may be a trick of some kind. I am off the opinion that the trick happens in our mind.