Which Way Do You Spin… Left Brain or Right Brain?
Which way is the dancer spinning… clockwise or counter-clockwise?
Most people will see her turning counter-clockwise, which apparently means you’re more left brained (logical). I see her spinning that way, and it’s at first almost impossible to imagine her going clockwise. But it happens, usually by focusing or when something unexpectedly alters your perception.
Here’s the typical run down on left versus right brain:
LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe
RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses feeling
“big picture” oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can “get it” (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking
Many people associate the right brain with creativity and lateral thinking, and there’s certainly something to that. Our left brains create structures that can act as barriers to alternative solutions and perspectives.
But your left brain plays a crucial role in creativity as well. Seeing logical associations between seemingly unrelated things is a hallmark of creativity. And the critical-thinking skills necessary to tell a good idea from a bad one are pretty important too.
So… tell us which way your dancer spins for you in the comments. And weigh in with your opinion about the right brain versus left brain for creativity… isn’t it a really a “whole mind” thing?
P.S. Want to know how this optical illusion works? Read this.
About the Author: Brian Clark is a new media entrepreneur and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
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wait. how did you do that?
Want hear something weird?
Each time I see this it changes for me.
Though, so does my L/R brain, so it’s actually,
accurate.
I could have sworn that I was left brained, but I don’t know how you could convince me that she is spinning counter clockwise.
Geez… i can see her both ways. Not at the same time, but going down in text, when i come back up, she’s spinning the other way. And then I go back, and going up again and she’s spinning the first way again.
And over, and over.
I see her spinning clockwise. I’m staring at her, trying to make myself see her spin the other way, but I can’t do it. I’m super-right-brained
I believe, I appreciate, I imagine. Yeah, the clockwise-ness makes sense.
Wow, I see her spinning clockwise. I am still trying to get her spin the other way.
I am INTP (MBTI) – which says my strength is logic. I would have thought I am left brained. I am confused :0
I think every single person is creative, in very very different ways. But we all harness our creativity in very different ways. People who think they are special because they are creative do not like this definition, since it has been believed for many years that creativity creates an exclusive “brand” … but it is amazing to see what even the most boring people come up with when they get in the “flow” – aka – use whole-brain!
I am left-brained all the way and she is spinning clockwise. Tell me I am not insane.
Thanks,
- jason
I see her spinning clockwise. If I really really work at it, I can see counterclockwise for a second or two before she goes back to clockwise.
Wonder if this has any relationship with the fact I’m left-handed?
I too can see her both ways. Apparently my mind is on overdrive!! What a cool and creative test!
I’d like to know – who is surprised by their results? Thought you were left-brained and found out that you’re really right-brained? Or vice-versa? Please let us know!
Clockwise – no matter what I do I never see her spinning the other way. I guess this means I’m right-brained, which I already knew.
No way she is spinning counter-clockwise! I can’t see it. She is spinning clockwise for me no matter how hard I try to alter it. Fascinating and it the right-brain functions line up perfectly for me as well.
just stare at her long enough and you’ll see her going the other way.
Clockwise all day. I dont think the left hemisphere of my brain even works at all.
I saw her spinning clockwise first, then afterwards counter-clockwise. I would gather that I lead with my right brain and follow up with my left brain. Great observation on how we view things. Self examination is always great if it helps us bring to light how we do things, especially if theyre done in an automatic unknowing way. Shed light upon that which had none.
@damienbasile
I am wholly convinced she is turning clockwise. The more I look and analyze and interpret what I see logically, the more I am absolutely certain of it. I think anyone who sees it as counterclockwise is just gullible: the article says people see it that way, and so some people believe it.
It’s easy to tell whether she is facing forwards or backwards, and the rotation between those extremes is straightforward to see as well, because of the ponytail and the shape of her face.
So what is this, an attempt at a hoax, or a test of public perception and gullibility?
Ok, this is just cool and weird. I spend so much of my day doing left-brained stuff. But I can’t see her going counter-clockwise at all, as hard as I try. It’s freaking me out to read that most see it the moving counter-clockwise.
Great find….I’m gotta go test some others with this.
Mostly, it’s clockwise, but she switches back and forth.
Is there any correlation to the fact that everything I draw faces left? Does anyone have insight on what that says about our brains (if anything)?
No way is she spinning counter-clockwise. All I see is her going right, right, right. I have even refreshed the browser to see if this is some sort of a mind-trick. I am right-brained. That’s it. I guess as a wedding photographer, that’s a very good thing.
Qrystal, what an interesting comment! You could only see her going clockwise, yet you gave such a left-brain analytical reason for doing so. Hmm…
To answer your question, a test of perception – yes. Of gullibility or hoax – wow, such powerful words. Anyone else feel this strongly?
Definitely spinning clockwise, can’t see it any other way! I’m not too surprised (as I daydream about writing and music and arts and crafts).
Just imagine that her left leg is actually her right, and she will begin spinning the other way. I saw Clockwise originally, and made myself see counter-clockwise with effort.
Weird. At first she was spinning clockwise for me, now she is spinning anti-clockwise and I can’t see how she was spinning clockwise in the first place.. :S
I can see her doing whatever I want! Yes. I can make her go clockwise and counter clockwise… Cool. Last time I tried this (couple of years ago) I only saw her moving counter clockwise.
This years I’ve been working on to become more creative…
However, I know I’m mostly left-brained…
I’m not convinced that the animation doesn’t switch just to mess with people, but apparently I am right-brained, for the most part. The page load delay causes the picture to turn one way then another, leading to my skepticism about whether it is actually a “mind” perception or just a fancy hoax. Either way, it’s interesting and spreading around the web like wildfire.
Whoa, is that cool. I see her spinning both ways, too, first clockwise then counterclockwise. Does that mean I’m schizophrenic? And wherever did you find that graphic?
This is clearly a silhouette of a 3D model of a woman spinning clockwise (from a top-down perspective). All you have to do is measure the lengths of the legs and arms at different points in the animation to prove this. The shadow of her feet also proves this (notice how the shadow of her foot is moving to the left, and appears *below* her other spinning foot (meaning that it’s in the air and is closer to you, not further away).
Nonetheless, for what it’s worth, I can trick my brain at will into thinking she’s spinning either right or left. The way I do it is by focusing on her foot’s shadow and thinking right or left, then looking up.
Hmmm. I see her turning clockwise — how does she go counter? I don’t see it.
I particularly like this quote taken from the essay on poetic meter titled, “The Neural Lyre,”
There are strong logical objections to the popular and prevailing view that the right brain is emotional while the left brain is rational, and that artistic capacities, being emotional, are located in the right brain. Both sides of the brain are capable of rational calculation: it is surely just as rational to “see” a geometric proof-which is the function of the right brain-as to analyze a logical proposition-which would be done on the left. And both sides of the brain respond to the presence of brain chemicals, and thus both must be said to be “emotional” in this crude sense. The right brain may be better able to recognize and report emotions, but this capacity is surely a cognitive one in itself, and does not necessarily imply a judgment about whether it feels emotions more or less than the left. Above all, art is quite as much a rational activity as it is an emotional one: so the location of art on the “emotional” right is surely the result of a misunderstanding of the nature of art. More plausible is the position of Jerre Levy, who characterizes the relationship between right and left as a complementarity of cognitive capacities5. She has stated in a brilliant aphorism that the left brain maps spatial information into a temporal order, while the right brain maps temporal information onto a spatial order. In a sense understanding largely consists in the translation of information to and fro between a temporal ordering and a spatial one-resulting in a sort of stereoscopic depth-cognition. In Levy’s view, the two “brains” alternate in the treatment of information, according to a rhythm determined by the general brain state, and pass, each time, their accumulated findings on to each other. The fact that experienced musicians use their left brain just as much as their right in listening to music shows that their higher understanding of music is the result of the collaboration of both “brains,” the music having been translated first from temporal sequence to spatial pattern, and then “read,” as it were, back into a temporal movement. The neurobiologist Gunther Baumgartner suggests that the forebrain acts as the integrating agent between specialized left and right functions, and it is in this integrative process that we would locate the essentially creative capacities of the brain, whether artistic or scientific. The apparent superiority of the isolated right brain in emotional matters may well reflect simply the fact that emotions, like music, are temporal in nature and their articulation requires the sort of temporal-on-spatial mapping that is the specialty of the right.
Read more of it here:
http://www.cosmoetica.com/B22-FT2.htm
- Jeff
Left-handed and (so I thought) right brained but no amount of staring will make her go clockwise =(
If you’re having trouble switching the rotation in your head, here’s a trick.
Follow her extended leg until it goes to one side. Imagine that she hits a glass wall and bounces in the opposite direction. Making your eyes/brain expect this change will force the effect. It works best if you move your eyes just ahead of the foot.
Do it again on the other side.
Soon, you’ll have something of a metronome effect with your dancer.
Jeff, that is exactly on point. Thanks for sharing.
By default, she spins counterclockwise for me.
I stared at the image for the longest time and couldn’t see it otherwise. Then something hit me.
If you’ve ever tried (while seated) to rotate your foot clockwise while drawing the number 6 in the air with your hand, you know how hard it is (if not impossible – I’ve never done it).
I tried to apply this to the dancer as well by holding up my index finger next to her and rotating it clockwise (since that’s the way I wanted to “make” her spin).
Sure enough, after watching both my finger and the dancer simultaneously for a bit, she switched directions. And when I switched my finger to rotating counterclockwise, she switched right back.
Curious to see if that works for anyone else.
I see a Counter Clockwise movement and my life’s struggle it to become more right-brained. I agree that one of my left brained strengths is seeing connections between concepts which others can not imagine exist, until I explain it to them.
Sometimes to the left, sometimes right; but you got to admit she’s kinda hot.
I guess we can see what I’m thinking with
What the… I see her clockwise and I can’t see her counter clockwise. Which makes sense to me and then doesn’t. I’m both a create person but I’m also a programmer and I study computer science.. which is logical stuff.
Does that make any sense?.
LOL. When I first saw this I didn’t read what it was about and she was going counter-clockwise, then I looked away and she was going clockwise. I though to myself what is this a hoax. Then I had my mom look at it and we both saw different things. I guess I’m a combo in my opinion. I tried to make it move on my own back and forth but it wouldn’t work until I used my finger to follow her twirling. Which helped to make her twirl either way. Very interesting.
I can make her change direction whenever I want to about 50% of the time. I just unfocused my eyes, then I refocused my eyes. That makes her switch for me. It’s all in fun.
She’s turning clock-wise at first, second and third impressions.
Staring at her longer than I should distracts my attention to her beautiful body
to be honest. She has shape, that I can say.
Whew, I am indeed right-brained.
I see her spinning clockwise… but I am so NOT right-brained… I am experiencing vertigo recently… I wonder if that has something to do with how I’m seeing her?
First time I see her, she’s turning clockwise. But if I want to change her turning anti-clockwise, I can do it straight away.
Activate right brain. Then activate left brain.
I’m sure that’s what most of creative writers do…
Write with right brain. Then edit with left brain.
Cheers,
Patsy
I think this is flawed. She is spinning both ways. She stops and spins the other way after a while. There is a little lag when she switches. Or am I just such a brain that I am using both hemispheres? ; )
First of all she’s got a great bod!
Secondly, I’ve been a Songwriter, Poet and now work in IT and Computers so I seem to using both sides of the brain, I’d highly recommend it, otherwise its a waste!
Thirdly, the image is programmed to automatically switch rotation randomly, you can’t make it, if you think you can, you’ve been watching too long!
Just to be clear, this is an optical illusion and their are no “tricks” or “hoaxes” going on… this particular animated GIF has been discussed for over a year, notably by the Freakonomics blog on the New York Times site. Google it for plenty of coverage.
Those of you who trust your own perception as “real” do so at your own peril.
The real question is… does it have anything to do with right brain versus left brain? And the deeper question is… even if it does, does that have anything to do with creativity?
That’s where I would start looking for the “hoax.”
I can only see her spinning clockwise. I’ve even tried closing my eyes and performing massive long division problems for a while, then opening my eyes–and she’s still spinning clockwise. I guess I’m in the camp that cannot fathom her spinning counter-clockwise!
Clockwise, most definitely. Unless I close my left eye, in which case she can spin counter-clockwise with no problem. Pretty cool, or pretty weird, depending on which eye you use!
Clockwise. I’ve looked at it 10+ times, over a few hours, and it’s always clockwise.
The right-brained also fits me … pefectly.
Thanks for the “learnin’s”.
Definitely accurate. I see her going both left and right as I stare at it long enough and in life, business, ect. I do the same thing. Sometimes I’m really really creative, and other times I’m all about the structure. So I would assume it works.
Try covering up everything but her foot with your hand, and looking away and back until the foot changes directions. This illusion is special because even once you “figure it out” its still hard to switch back and forth with ease.
I saw this illusion a couple of months ago on an artists’ website. Most of the time the girl spins clockwise for me.
But if I stare at the spinning girl and start blinking very fast for about 10 seconds she reverses. The reversal lasts until I blink again or I lose my concentration. I can do the reversal for several times before I just get tired.
Hmmm…. Using my left brain & being logical makes me tired?
At first I only saw her moving clockwise. But I found out that if I focus on the image, its clockwise all the way, but if I look from my perifiral vision its only counter-clockwise… I wonder how much personal beliefs figure in the perception.
She is spinning clockwise for me as well and I had a hard time making her go the other way.
On your last point in the article you are absolutely right, it is a whole mind thing.
I am doing a thesis on my university based on this left brain-right brain thing and we are using a questionnaire which people have to answer online and then see their results superimposed on a circle. Although it is not a contest the best result you can get is to have a balanced result, meaning using both the right and left sides of your brain in equal amounts.
There are other test out there which prove that if you could, hypothetically, measure all the people of the world the result would be perfectly balanced, meaning that all the people of the world form a “whole mind”.
Both poetic and true I think…
I saw her spinning clockwise. As a matter of fact, I tried to go back and imagine her spinning counter clock wise and couldn’t see it at all.
I’m all Right. I see numbers and freeze.
Thanks for this! Interesting.
Odd. It was spinning clockwise when I first got on the page but as I read the posts and comments, I looked back up and it was going counter clockwise. Strang.
clockwise. couldn’t get her to spin counter-clockwise no matter how I tried.
what if you can make her go either way on command?
When I first watched the figure, I thought, “What a clever little program, the figures keeps reversing!”
Then after I read the information I realized it must be me. I cannot keep the figure spinning in the same direction for more than a few seconds, no matter how much I concentrate.
Very clever. Fun! jb
I can only seem to be able to see her spinning clockwise, which I wasnt expected, what with being a Chemistry student, I should be left brained? Explains why I’m so bad at maths though =P
When I first open the page she is going Counter Clock wise. Once I read that she is normally going Clockwise then she does.
Not sure what to think other than I am just a bit “off”. Hmm, all my life I have been told I need to learn to slow down my thinking maybe this is a sign. LOL!
I think most people can make her change direction if they want to. Or does it mean I need Dr. Phil?
The shadow is the critical point here, though I have to disagree with Tom Chaplin. I initially saw her spinning clockwise, but the light source is slightly above & behind the model – the supporting leg shadow shows this.
The rotatating leg shows a shadow that approaches the light source as it travels from right to left, ie that foot is on the far side of the model from our perspective as it is travelling form right to left. Hence she is turning anti clockwise.
It is a shame that any shadow is show, otherwise the picture would be unarguably ambiguous.
I saw her spinning right (clockwise). Suddenly saw her turning left
For a while I thought it’s a fake or some clever animation but when my wife told me something opposite I saw at the same time … It is curious 
It’s certainly not a hoax. For me, I couldn’t get her to turn anti-clockwise until I started blinking rapidly, as one of the above commenters tried. Once I did that, I could suddenly see her going the other way. Now I can see both depending on what I want to see.
So no, it’s not a clever program that reverses its spin, and it’s not a test to try and get people to say they see anti-clockwise when it’s clockwise. I agree with Brian: it’s unwise to trust your own perception so strongly. Your brain is merely a device that *interprets* reality, and it can often get things wrong.
When i first looked at it it was going clockwise then i read the article and looked again, when i concentrate hard it’s spinning counter-clockwise. Trippy
Nice :]
I can make her switch on (almost) command by crossing my eyes and staring at the background.
weird! i can only see the woman moving clockwise.
if you focus on the point where her swining leg crosses the stationary leg, your perceotion will chage each time it crosses it. Atleast mine did
It switches for me. What’s up ith that
I naturally saw the dancer going Counter clockwise as I know I’m more logical in thinking. but I know that everything is perception. I can change the direction with some mental thought and concentration. I can imagine it’s possible to make her rotate either way on any rotation with enough concentration and training.
I see the spin going in either direction seemingly willingly!
Yeah I’m in the same boat – it’s completely up to me which way she goes.
Same for me, it keeps changing on me every time I see it.
I originally see her going clockwise, but if I focus on her head or foot or something, it’s fairly easy for her to switch. She either almost seems to stop and then go the other way or just flip over. It’s sort of weird.
i think it has something to do with the upper body. Try covering above her waist with your hand and then blinking a lot.
going clockwise for me, but im extremely left brained, so i dont think this works very well.
I can make her change direction whenever I want, although she usually does 180* spins and switches.
I must be a genius.
Started out spinning clockwise… took me a while to get her going the other way but now i can switch at will. It just takes practice.
by looking at the shadow on the floor and telling urself when it appears from her leg whenits in front that its at the back you can make her change direction
I see her spinning clockwise too…
I swear I’m left brained though. Maybe the author can’t tell which way is clockwise and which way is counter-clockwise.
this is crazy… It seemed like their was no way I could make her stop spinning counter clock wise… then finally it changed and I see her spinning clock wise… If you look long enough she will probably change for you too!
I see her as spinning clockwise, and for the life of me cannot see her spinning counter-clockwise. But I am definitely a right-brained person, though my left brain is not dormant!
What if this is a trick… and every so often it really changes direction???
Most of the time i see her going clockwise, but i can make it switch directions pretty easily. This is really neat to watch when your stoned
. By the way, we share the same name… isnt that strange? 
can’t see her clockwise ever.
She’s leading with her left shoulder, backwards.
OK, try to adopt that pose and spin clockwise. Look over your left shoulder, extend your left hand, put your weight on your right heel — it’s completely unnatural. That’s how’d you’d stand spinning counter-clockwise.
Michael, Ian et. al, I was sure of the same thing, that the thing was tricking me by flipping randomly. But I can now make her change direction when I like, and I can see her going the same direction as long as I like.
Amazing how powerful the illusion is.
I’m very cross-hemispherish, but I’m skeptical that this tells you anything about which hemisphere is dominant. Still a fun brain-bender, though.
Clockwise. Nevertheless, all my characteristics are those of the left brained group.
Well I just spent another 5 minutes trying to see anything but clockwise.
I do notice that the shadows do not make sense.
Come on. if you watch it long enough she just switches position. Its a trick.
She switches at some moment for everybody, just like us every day. We don’t see it because we already decided how we would like to be: logical or creative.
This is an optical illusion. Of course, all people can see both spin directions given the time.
This has nothing to do with the deeply exaggerated (to the point of pseudoscientific) notion of brain laterality or ‘dominance’.
here’s a trick:
if you see her only spinning clockwise, cover up her body and stare at the shadow of her foot on the ground.
soon enough, she will change to counter clockwise.
Aha! That’s cool.. and I just noticed that i can go both ways
It’s really cool, one minute, I see her spinning anti-clockwise, the next, clockwise. What would that put me down as?
Well. I like to think that whichever way I see her spin has no bearing on how creative I am or how I use my brain to do what I’d like it to do, be that a calculus function or a blog post.
How quick we are to find ways to say, “YES! I’m like THIS! See? I knew it all along…” We seek out justifications all the time to reinforce how we see ourselves. A spinning vector image determines what type of person we are?
Not for me, thanks. I need both sides of my brain, and who I am is shaped by much more than just what I see.
The way the brain processes stimuli and information in the right or left side is different, sure. But it’s just a part in the whole. We’re not so sliced that we can say, “My left brain doesn’t work,” or “I’m right all the way.”
We’re people, people. We have to use both sides of our brains to accomplish millions of the tiniest tasks. It takes our WHOLE brain to do what we need to do.
Our eyes process what we see and our brain translates that into data. So it is with our ears and what we hear, our skin and what we sense, our nose and what we smell, and more, and more.
Anyways, apparantly my thoughts have been fueled with really strong coffee…
I can only see her turning clockwise no matter how hard i try
Rotated clockwise for me on first try – took about 15 seconds to get her to reverse. But I am *very” “left-brained” by the standards you give – science grad, computer programmer, unemotional (externally at least), tend to pedantry, impatient with philosophy and “spiritual” concepts.
I see her turning clockwise and also the other way but more easy clockwise.is it good or not?
this is really interesting at first i saw it going clockwise but now if i stare at her foot on the ground i can actually turn her in any direction i like i can even have her go in semi circles alternating between the two pretty easily now. Great site very fun!
counterclockwise..can’t get it to swiitch for anything.
It seems to me it all depends on which way her foot is facing when you look at her the first time. I notice this because initially, i always see her spinning clockwise, but if i stare at her reflection on the floor and then look at her again, sometimes she switches to counter clockwise.
I noticed then that if i stop looking at her foot (the one planted on the ground not the one spinning) remove my focus off the direction she is spinning and then uncover her foot again the direction she spins is based on which was the foot was facing… left, she spins clockwise, right she spins counter clockwise.
Someone try it and see if you get the same result, but remember to remove your focus off the way she is spinning before uncovering her foot
DUDE! Mine went from counter-clockwise to clockwise and back and then back to clockwise. Each time it took about 10 sec! Are you sure it doesn’t change on it’s own?
No matter what I do, she’s spinning clockwise. I’ve seen this many times and she’s always spinning clockwise.
The idea that I’m right brained is not exactly a surprise.
i do not want to dissappoint you guys, but it IS a trick. just stare at her legs, and you’ll notice that she switches the leg she spins on.
Because right eye goes to left brain, and vice versa, if I close one eye, the open eye’s corresponding brain side always chooses the spinning direction just as you describe.
Would someone born blind in one eye have a much less-developed corresponding brain hemisphere?
I was born lazy-eyed, and the ‘good eye’ made me a typical left brainer. I always sensed my creative side was ‘blocked’ and this could explain it.
I’ve been working to restore the lazy-eye’s contribution (I’m 56) and my brain has been adapting to the new input, while the good eye is kept closed. And I’ve become a Christian during this time, after a being a lifelong logical atheist. I wonder if there could be any connection.
Brilliant site. Thanks.
This was fun and interesting. Clockwise. Thought it was a trick until I relaxed my gaze downward and saw her spinning counter-clockwise in my peripheral vision. Funny, I’m happiest living my life right-brained, but my left-brain always insists on enforcing boundaries and rules.
first, i see it spinning clockwise, but then when i tried clearing up my mind. i looked at it again and it changed to counter-clockwise. i blink my eyes repeatedly and sometimes it changes the way it spins.. i really dont know how and why..
definitely spinning clockwise for me, no doubt about it!
For those of you who still think this is some kind of trick, read this:
http://www.randominc.net/spinninglady/
I’m a mathematician, and it is definitely turning clockwise, I can’t see it turning in the opposite way. So I must be right-brained, but gee, I’m a f*cking mathematician..
i see her going right.. or clock-wise.
i cant seem to figure out how she could be going left xD
hahaha my brain is getting sore
Oh come on people, don’t get sucked in by this, she spins one way a while, then she spins the other. There is no optical illusion. no “left brained or right brained” If you haven’t seen here spin both ways, you just aren’t watching long enough.
This time, I see the dancer spinning clockwise, but I can also see her spinning counterclockwise. I’ve seen this image before, and I think it switches for me each time.
I always get hung-up on the right brain/left brain theory. I think everyone can be creative and that it’s not just based on which side of the brain you use more often. I think it’s your ability to make connections between different things – which might involve your ability to connect the different sides of your brain.
When people tell me they’re left-brained as an excuse for not being creative, it feels like a cop-out. I’m quite left-brained myself (an INTP, like one of the above commentators) and I am very good at being creative. For me, the logical aspect comes into play when I try to connect two very different things (eg. frogs and how to improve a car). My mind wants to make the connection local so much that an idea suddenly appears.
To me, it’s not about being right-brained or left-brained. It’s just about learning to use your strengths to come up with new ideas.
everyone who says it’s not possible to make her turn the other direction you’re wrong, you’re just not trying hard enough. Im extremely right brained but i can make it turn the other direction if i concentrate hard enough. i can’t make it last though.
I am a computer programmer and assume that I am left brained (and programming is creativity at times, I step away to get ideas). BUT I see clockwise and I am certain. I cannot see counter-clockwise. I am with Qrystal and Tom Chapin. I have seen this elsewhere without the tell-tale signs of a certain rotation. I also see that you use DAZ studio or Poser. I don’t believe that you have the illusion that you were shooting for.
I see her going clockwise.
I’m a dancer, and the only way I can see her going is clockwise (until I looked at the explanation for it). I don’t know whether anyone else did the same thing, but I imagined myself as the dancer, I couldn’t figure it out before I did that. It’d be interesting to see if anyone else places themselves as the dancer, and what other dancers think about it, especially as most dancers would put themselves in the right-brained category.
Katie,
Just had to point out that INTP is actually far more right-brain oriented than left. Each of the 4 MBTI axes can be broken down to a left or right brain preference, with Extroversion, Sensing, Thinking and Judging representing a left brain preference and Introversion, iNtuiting, Feeling, and Perceiving representing a right brain preference. Given that, you skew right brain on 3 out of 4 preferences, and your primary means of relating to the outside world is through intuition!
Classifying INTP as a left brain dominant is a misunderstanding of both MBTI and brain lateralization. Having a need for logical coherence or intellectual rigor in your inner life does not make you “left brain.”
- Jeff
I saw her spinning clockwise. I saw this same spinning silhouette about a week ago and she was spinning counter clock wise. It seems to day I can see her spinning in whichever direction I want, almost every time I want to.
For about 10% off the people the whole left-right brain is swapped (most of these people are left handed). It is therefor not a good idea to read to much into these type of things.
It is great to use it to ‘loosen’ your thinking, but don’t get fixed on this.
The freaky thing is that when I saw this in my RSS reader, she was spinning clockwise, but now she’s spinning counter-clockwise, and I can’t make her “switch” either way!
If I try I can see it both ways but the stance I think would suggest clockwise motion and clockwise is what I see instinctively but I’m a science student. I’ve previously been an arts student and science suits me much better but then my maths teacher said the best minds are balanced, Einstein was a concert grade violinist. To be a good scientist you need imaginaton and to be a good author or artist you need good technique.
At first glance she was turning counter-clockwise, then clockwise, then about a 50/50 mix of her turning one or the other.
Now, it is pretty easy to make the switch at will.
Here’s my little trick:
When she is moving counter-clockwise I just turn my head to the left and only see her with the peripheral vision of my right eye. She will shortly begin turning clockwise.
Next, I turn my head to the right and only see her with the peripheral vision of my left eye. She will shortly begin turning counter-clockwise.
Try it.
I am pretty sure it is just the animation changing itself. At first I saw it clockwise (I fit the counter-clockwise, “logical” description much better, by far), and then later on I saw it go counter-clockwise.
If you watch long enough, it just changes back and forth. It has to do with her arm/upper body swinging in a certain direction that makes it hard to see when she actually switches.
Dude! I can make her go one way, then switch and go the other way, then change back again, just by looking at here! thats soo cool!!!
Please look at the shadow of the forward foot everyone. I have been reading all of the comments today and noone is paying attention to the shadow of the forward foot. I cannot see it counterclockwise because she is not spinning counter clockwise. If the shadow moves from right to left, please let me know…I haven’t seen it.
James,
I disagree because I was observing this with two other people at the same time and we had very different results.
It is your brain doing the switching.
if i concentrate i can make her spin either way.
if i dont concentrate, she spins both ways!
im a genius
This is a demonstration of the ambiguity of silhouettes. It has nothing to do with ‘left brain right brain’ people, which is in itself complete nonsense.
Anybody can make it spin either direction, you just need a cue to facilitate it.
no matter what, she always spins clockwise. am i normal?
Very cool. If you read the beginning of the post while keeping the image in your peripheral vision, you’ll see her spin both ways depending on when you notice the image.
Focusing on her bottom (legs), I see it clockwise.
However, if I focus on her top (body&head) after hiding it for a second, I see it counterclockwise. Then I can hide it again and switch directions that way.
Without hiding, my brain takes about 5 seconds to switch direction. Not changing where I focus, it takes 10-15 seconds.
Sam,
Brain lateralization is sound (even noble prize-winning) science – even if some popularized notions based on it can degenerate into nonsense. And I can also tell you from working with the MBTI preferences that they are also very real.
Yes, we all use both hemispheres of our brains every day, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have characteristic ways of perceiving and processing. People DO have those preferences and there is a large body of evidence to show that those preferential ways of perceiving and processing have biological correlates. Using “right brain” or “left brain” terminology can be a useful shorthand in talking about, making use of, and even transcending those preferences – even if that shorthand is often only directionally true, rather than perfectly/technically accurate.
- Jeff
I saw it rotating clockwise and no way am I able to see it otherwise. So what does it mean for me??
when I see her completely then it is spinning in right counter clock wise, but when i hide the pic and c only her legs then it is clockwise
i find that if you look at the foot in the shadow, you can get her to spin the other way.
I see her doing it clockwise, and I swear, only clockwise.
Then I notice her changing direction. Then again, then again, at random intervals.
I began to think that this was a hoax–seriously, it was just too obvious, right?
If this is real, whoever came up with this is pure genius.
I , in no way, can see her turning counter clockwise. No matter how hard I try. I would agree that I am totally right brained.
LOL
I can make her top half spin clockwise, and legs spin counter-clockwise, and vice versa. Therefore, I think I lack a brain at all, or my brain is twisted together.
I see her spinning clockwise.
Definitely right-brained.
My tendency is to see it as clockwise but I can see it both.
The easiest way I’ve found to cause the switch is the rapidly blink my eyes while looking at the image slightly de-focused.
I see her spinning clockwise at first glance every time I’ve seen this. But I am definitely a left-brained person, no doubt about it which is what I always find strange. I can change which way I see her spinning though
i definitely see it going clockwise. but i’ve always assumed i was left brained since im right handed. but at the same time, im a much more creative/artistic fantasy based thinker for sure as the right brained description suggests.
WTF at first I saw it Clockwise, then counter clock wise, and now I can actually make it go any way I want to.
I’m I dying?
ok wierd i stared at it for about 30 seconds and now its going the other way o_O
She goes clock-wise no matter how I squint my eyes or if I look at her torso or even if I look at her foot’s shadow.
’round and ’round she goes
I am most definitely a lefty! My right hand only functions on a baseball field for batting & throwing and then again when I think about you (and I touch myself).
Otherwise I eat, write, shoot pool, bowl, throw darts, defend myself (knee up or left-fist-first), snowboard (goofy), operate staplers, knives and I even pour drinks left-handedly! I arrange my work area, living area and kitchen for lefties …
I can’t play tennis because I have no forehand. Instead I have a racquet that jumps between hands depending on which side the ball hits. haha Shooting hoops never worked well either; no one made me decide which way to shoot so I became OK at both but great at neither.
Z
She changed directions when I would go back. I got her to change directions at will by looking away closing(or covering) one eye then looking back then look away and switch eyes. I was even able to due it fast enough for her to look like she switched directions in the same turn.
While I think it is due to left and right brain perception, I really don’t think it will show your dominate half, just witch one take over when first seeing the picture.
It’s perfectly obvious to me. When I loaded the page she was spinning clockwise, and while I watched she alternated to counter clockwise, and back, etc.
PS: Since the Earth rotates counter clockwise, shouldn’t that be “Earthwise” and clockwise be “counter Earthwise”?
The reflected foot is near to you (gets cut off) when her foot sweeps from left to right. Isn’t that enough to determine she is turning counter-clockwise?
Which I suppose is a left-brain answer.
This freaks me out every time I see it. I initially see it spinning clockwise, but if I look away, she spins the other way. Definitely not a hoax, IMHO. Just an incredibly innovative illusion.
I think the brain is more complicated than logic on one side and creativity on the other, as most have already said. Logical situations often require a sense of creativity also and vice versa.
I see her turning both ways….I’m an ALL Brainer
i can pick the way i see her going super brain!!!!!!!
i went to here!
P.S. Want to know how this optical illusion works? Read this.
and see here going both ways at the same time!
I control dancer.
She just keeps going clockwise no matter what. I’m trying to get her to spin the other way, but it isn’t happening.
she goes clockwise at first, but then she changes in the middle. just follow the motion of her leg and ass. you can see the switch. but you have to catch it tho. unless you gonna be staring at it forever. hahaha
I can only ever see her rotate clockwise. Seeing the “how it works” page is fun — when I look at one, the other goes the same way!
In a way, I find it surprising that I see her rotate clockwise, since primary primary strengths are logic and maths/science and I’m a computer programmer. However, I also have good spatial reasoning, and strengths in several of the “right brain” functions.
Interesting.
*wonders if anyone ever expected this many comments…*
I can make her spin in both directions easy .
OMG i am schizophren
I see it spinning clockwise but my wife can change the direction at will. What the hell does that mean?
At first i saw her spining clockwise….. but i can make her change directions whenever i want XD…. it’s really funny
ok, i’ve sussed it out. anyone who saw my previous post would see that i insisted that she ONLY goes clockwise. however, i just looked at her again and she was going COUNTER-COCKWISE……THEN, before my very eyes, she started to go the opposite way again. conclusion? she was programmed to spin randomly in both directions by somebody who is very clever……tra-la!
Francis, you can’t “program” an animated gif that way. Check the link at the bottom of the post for an explanation of the illusion.
Brian is right, gifs cannot be “randomly programmed”. they are animations, and go from frame->frame->frame continuously – no randomization.
I can see both directions. it starts counter-clockwise every time, but if i stare at it and tell myself – it’s going in the other direction – soon it does
I like IT!!
I see it as clockwise. I genuinely find it hard to see it as going the other way.
I can only see clockwise – but I fit into the left brain category. I think this isn’t test isn’t really true.
whenever i want i see it turning on the left and whenever i want i see it on the right!
it’s so weird though!!!
It keeps changing! first it was clockwise, then while i was staring at it, it changed! wtf????
OK, most people are right handed. Right side is controlled by the left side, and the left side of the body controlled by the right side of the brain. Americans (or people in general) have the left side as being the dominant side, since, as stated before, most people are right handed.
Animals on the other hand also have two hemispheres, but since they don’t make rational, mathematical, or logical decisions, they do not have a dominant side.
So, the answer to this question is that she is spinning clockwise. The brain wants to tell you that she is spinning the opposite way because figuring this stuff out is on the right side, but most are left side dominant….therefore what they see is the opposite of what your brain WANTS you to see.
HOPE I COULD HELP!!!
I am Matrix lol. Very interesting. Love the explanation. I seen some replies that say they can’t see it going left (which was very difficult for me as well, but thinking there is no real box I looked out my window for a second or two and then looked back and she went left.
I first saw her spinning clockwise and had NO CLUE how you could see it any other way.. but for some reason i stared at her feet.. and then focused on her upper half and voila.. i saw it clockwise.. every time i look at her feet now and then look back up, my direction changes.. weird!
It spins clockwise if I look at it directly but if I look off to the side it changes direction. Looking at it again causes it to switch back…but then again, on every test of this type I’ve taken I never score differently enough in either side to qualify as either left or right brained, I’m center brained.
dude… you guys make it so hard on yourself. This is sooo easy.
The original post already gives away the trick to make the image spin in any direction you want.
If you want it to spin clockwise just think of something unreal… Like Final Fantasy. Just use your imagination and it totally spins clockwise.
Now if you want it to spin counter-clockwise just think of something factual. Maybe like a math problem: 7+7=14 , 7*2=14, etc.
you know.. use logic.
It is really how you use you brain.
Just a very simple trick.
What does this have to do with brain sides?
I see it either way each time I close my eyes and open again, it changes direction!
Clockwise for me; every time I tried this it was the same. The right brain definitely matches me best as well. I wierd thing is that I blinked really fast a couple of times and now she is spinning the other way lol and I can’t get her to go back!
Maybe some hormonal reaction to blinking?
I was looking at it, and my first thought was, “Hmm… hard to tell, I think clockwise” and then I looked down and noticed her reflection, and noticed that when her lifted leg was near the middle, the toes of her leg that are perpendicular to the ground were pointing away, meaning she was actually spinning counter-clockwise.
My suggestion to improve this image to better test… get rid of the reflection on the bottom.
I think she is hot!!
I would love to see her in colors….
and once again, before my very eyes, she changed direction. i’m beyond caring now.
I can see the body going clockwise and I’m left-handed which would tend to indicate I’m left-brained.
BUT, I work in IT specifically with programming languages, and I speak five or six different languages; am very particular about things being in order and tidy etc. I’m not brilliant at art or music (although I enjoy both)
Then again, I tend to think outside the box, am impetuous, pretty rubbish at maths, interested in philosophy etc.
My work and general life seems to be dominated by my left-brain, but my personal life is generated by my right-brain.
Looked to me like she started out clockwise, then changed direction, then changed direction again….
Does that mean I’m completely insane?!
wo i see her going clockwise.. cool
i can slow her down if i concentrate really hard and i closed my eyes and tilted my head to the left and opened my eyes and i felt a click in my head and she was going the other way OMG!!!
i can make her go either way without shifting my focus but i started out with her going counter-clockwise. i can also make her just go left to right to left to right without doing a full circle. its kind of amusing.
I can see her spin either way depending on which eye I use . I have never integrated my vision.my ‘lazy eye ‘wasn’t ‘caught’ and patched as a kid . Interestingly I make my living as an artist but have showed in other such tests to be definetly ‘whole brained ‘. Strangely though switching eyes changes the direction but it is not consistent with which eye sees which direction .. hmm
Hmm I just tried something new:
I turned my screen upside down (it’s a laptop) and watched it for a bit until it started going clockwise upside down (counter clockwise upside right) and now I can’t make it turn back to clockwise…
It all depends on when you look at this image. It spins both clockwise and counter-clockwise. It spins for about 90 seconds and then changes directions.
I can change which way it spins myself but it takes a few seconds of concentration.
Try as I might to see it either way………she is turning clockwise for me period. I wish I could see it counter clockwise, but can’t
I see it both ways. Stare at her for a whole minute and she changes directions.
INTP here too. Spinning clockwise, but I can make her change directions at will.
First time it took me a bit to get her to spin the other way, but now I can do it with ease.
When I surfed over here I glanced at the image briefly, then read the text. Typical behavior — just give me the facts.
I’ve been a financial analyst, a budget analyst, an IT project manager, and for quite a while now, a successful futures investor. I have been accused of being left-brained to the point of not having a right brain.
Then I looked back at the image and realized I was seeing her spinning … CLOCKWISE!
Right brained? Moi?
Perhaps there’s hope for me yet.
Seriously, guys, look at the site Brian references in comment #106.
While the animation may not really tell you anything about which hemisphere tends to be dominant for you (and as many have said, assuming you don’t have brain damage, you use both hemispheres), it tells an awful lot about how we react to certainty and uncertainty.
She’s actually a zen monk teaching us about nonattachment.
and I should add… Left handed -dyslexic.
ok this is cool, at first she spun cc-wise, now only clock wise. After reading a bit. I went to the site that #106 refers to. As i read on that site, I noticed while reading they spun the same direction and then the other way. Then i noticed that i could make them spin together or the other way. Heck any way i wanted. This is way cool and will come back and look again. thanks
umm, well, at first I saw her spin clockwise, then I looked away for a sec and she was spinning the other way. This is all before I read anything below, I was just stumbling. Then, because at this point I thought it was a trick and she would start spinning clockwise again, I watched her, and sure enough she did. Now I wanted to know what this was all about, so I read the explanation. I don’t think I’m anything special, my grades all the way through college sure don’t show it, but it does make since. I can think very logically, but at the same time, imagine very “out-there” stuff. I can see things in my head, then make then happen using logical paths. I am pretty good at making movies, and I think this is why. I am also slightly dyslexic, I don’t know if that has anything to do with it or not, but I figured I’d share.
Oh, and another thing, I can actually feel it, like in my whole body, when she starts spinning the other way. I don’t know how else to explain it other than a feeling over my whole body starting in my head.
For me it would spin 1 or 2 rotations in one direction and then switch to the other direction. I could not control it or make it stay in one direction. :S
she is spinning clockwise I’m reading and reading and looking and looking i’m definitely right-brained
I can see both. Not too hard. But I’m really frustrated with all these sites with this illusion suggesting which direction you see the figure rotating has anything to do with being left or right brained. It has practically no correlation at all. Actually, the whole left/right brain idea is really flawed and outdated. Most thought processing functions use great amounts of both hemispheres, not one or the other.
This is a trick of perception to do with left and right ‘EYE’; close one eye and the spin will reverse. It proves nothing about how the ‘left/right’ brain works.
Try as I might, I can only see the dancer spinning clockwise.
Interesting if true – I have recently started to ‘feel’ more right-brain trends than ever before.
However, I’m not sure you can generalise about which qualities combine to make a creative person. My perception is that it’s people’s unique combinations of left and right-brain qualities that generate [unique] creativity.
When I first looked at it, the dancing lady was spinning clockwise. I didn’t read any of the comments so haven’t seen if this was already mentioned, but, if you watch the space between the foot of her standing leg and her reflection beneath it, you can force the image to “change direction” almost at will.
I’m with Roland and Josh.
At first I couldn’t seem to see the dancer turning in any direction but clockwise. For some reason, looking at that leg shadow changed the perspective.
As to your Post, Brian, remember the long debated question: which came first, the chicken, or the egg? The only answer that made sense to me was: there is no answer … because it doesn’t matter. Fact is, one cannot exist without the other, so they’re equally important.
To me, you’re absolutely right. When it comes to “right brain” or “left brain” thinking, it’s the “whole” that counts. They each have their function in the brain’s thinking process and, as far as I’m concerned, one really cannot exist without the other. That is, if one wishes to lead a full, happy and creative life.
In actuality, they find out that this has absolutely nothing to do with the way your brain operates. I found some articles on it after it went ‘popular’ last year when it was first published.
Still cool though
Cheers,
Glen
While I appreciate everyone’s theories about using the left eye and the right eye I have not been able to see her spinning in any direction but clockwise. I have tried looking at the shadow of her foot, looked away and back, peripheral vision of either eye etc… and she still only spins clockwise.
I’m afraid your list of right and left brain functions is utter nonsense. The dichotomy is a popular misconception with no basis on reality. Check out a post about this very same topic:
http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/10/the_left_brain_right_brain_myt.php
It’s a nice spinning image, though, I’ll give you that.
A wonderful illusion. I don’t buy into the left-brain, right-brain connection, though.
When I looked at this several days ago, it was clockwise consistently. Now as I look at it, I can look away and return to see it revolve counterclockwise and then back to clockwise, and so on. Thanks.
Back and forth, back and forth. Sometimes she will be locked in the clockwise position sometimes locked into counterclockwise and then she will flip back and forth rapidly. It’s actually making my head spin so maybe what it says about me is that I’m a dizzy blonde!
Thanks for a bit of fun…..
That whole left-brain/right-brain thing was debunked years ago. Why people still believe it is the REAL mystery…
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=uncovering-brainscams
I’m curious… I made my own version of this, same number of frames and more or less the same pose (I deliberately made it a little different to avoid any possible copyright issues) and I can’t for the life of me get my own version to turn the “wrong” way. Can ANYONE make it change direction?
I omitted the shadow as it could cause confusion in the original. Now I think the shadow may be part of whatever it is that tricks my brain (and yes I checked the original gif frame by frame, it is indeed not changing direction during play, though some clever coding may be able to make it do so… I’m NOT saying the original is a fraud or a trick, mind you)
Anyway, if anyone want to try, my version is here: http://trekkiegrrrl.dk/SpinningTG.gif
I just see counter-clockwise, though have been told I create like a right-brainer. I have refreshed, told myself it is going the other way, gone into expanded awareness and she still spins counter-clockwise for me.
What are the stats of answers from Southern & Northern Hemisphere??? could add a whole new dimension to it.
Love it…..
Wow, it’s not until I stop looking directly at her that she seems to shift direction and move clockwise.
This is tripping me out!
Jeannette
It actually changes for me.
Even forgot which way it felt for the first time.
It started with either of it (say anti clock wise), as my eyes tried to read the text below the image, the image was spinning the other way.
For few moments i thought some time delay might have been given to reverse the spin. Tried the same (watching the image spinning in one direction, and then look below the image and it would reverse).
Crazzy !
Well after commenting i did it again. First time i watch image, only image it turns clockwise.
As i start reading the text below it is the opposite way !
Yes sure, i tried thrice while writing this.
She is definitely going clockwise.
Haha, me and my friends all get in arguments over which leg she’s using.
I guess I use both sides of my brain because I can get her to change direction at any time I want.
One way she’s going counter-clockwise.
and when I focus and tell my brain.
“clockwise” she instantly goes clockwise.
There’s not a chance in hell this thing is going clockwise. I tried so long to see it. How could it possibly be?
Wow. That is a trip. No matter what I do, I can’t see her turning counter-clockwise. But it’s funny because I’m definitely a word and language guy, but many of the right brained characteristics apply to me. I have always thought I was more a creative type based on what I am good at, and I’m also left handed.
I can see this in both ways, clockwise and anti-clockwise
I see her spinning left for about ten seconds, then right for about 10 seconds, then left, then right. I know when I have taken tests my scores have shown that I am very right and left brained both, and that I am very well rounded. When I first took the test about six months ago, she was swinging wildly around, about every two seconds, LOL. Now she moves systematically for awhile in one direction and again in the other, back and forth, back and forth, like that. It makes me think. As of late I have attempted to develop my mind — both in right and left brained pursuits. Perhaps she is not swinging so wildly b/c I have mastered a little more of both the left and right side of my brain, and she can hang there for awhile before having to swing to the other side! Just a thought… Anyway, thanks for sharing this with us.
seriously losing my mind watching this… she keeps switching directions!!!!
at first she was going clockwise. i looked again and she was going counter clockwise. am i crazy?
Wow.
I am definitely more left than right brained if this measurement is accurate. I saw counter clockwise until I read the word counter clockwise in the text. Then she went the other way. I can now make her go either way at my leisure with ease. Matches me though, I am extremely logical and analytical before I apply any creativity.
So I find this mind-blowing!
To me the spinning lady ONLY spins clockwise!!! Only when the feet are filled in do I see any difference – with effort.
So I guess I must be heavily right brained. Why am I ever in law school!
What a fascinating experiment.
Lesley
Weird – I saw her spinning counter-clockwise first, scrolled down to read the rest of the post, then looked again without even focusing and she was spinning clockwise.
I see her spinning clockwise. With a minimal amount of effort I can see her going counter clockwise. With more effort I can switch back and forth and have her doing the twist.
Listen up everybody! I can get her spinning both ways on command.
Here’s how you do it.
Look at the spinning lady from the knees down only.
Now picture in your mind that you are looking at her from behind.
When her leg spins around to 90 degrees on either side, pretend she’s hitting an invisible wall and bouncing back in the opposite direction.
This way she is spinning in both directions.
OMG!
All this time I saw her turning clockwise. Then I read a comment saying that if you look at the space between her standing leg reflection, you can make it change.
I felt something happened and when I looked at her whole she was going Anti-clockwise! I looked away shocked.. When I looked back she was going clockwise again.
Wieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd..
omg.. it changes after every 20 seconds or so.. jeeez pay attention!
her direction changes after about 20 seconds.. look carefully.. you’ll realize it
Dont mind the guy called staffy, hes my friend and he thinks that we are all stupid and he knows that she is changing cause of the animation
I saw it turning clock wise at first then I looked away for a second and it switched to counter clock-wise.
If you get used to seeing her go either way you can train yourself to see her “sweep” first one way and then the other without her ever making a full turn. Try it. I think that’s probably a good whole brain exercise.
This is amazing….i cant make her spin any way i want her to i just have to focus on her going the opsite way shes going by looking at her feet and moving my eyes the oposite way!!! So much fun!!!
so i dont know what side that makes me!
Started out going clockwise, then after a brief distraction I looked up and it was moving counterclockwise. Started at the ankle for a bit, and sort of resolved it and got it to metronome, and then figure eight
Fun little test. Shadow kind of ruins it though
Look at the picture closely, she is moving her leg left to right and not rotating. Look very carefully, you will just notice if you are left brained.
Ugh, this is making me dizzy.
First I looked and she spun clockwise, but when I looked away and back, she spun counter-clockwise. Then I looked back and it was clockwise again. Now when I watch for a while she switches, sometimes every second.
So does that make me really balanced (between left and right), or am I just really mentally unbalanced?
It depends on what part of her body you look at.
Most of us look at the chest area first, so we see her going counter-clockwise. Those who look at the feet first see her going clockwise.
Look away then at her feet/chest for a few seconds to see the opposite of what you originally saw.
The fact that it’s a silhouette makes it possible that she’s going either way. There is no right or wrong answer, as some people seem to think.
this is so so so cool. i figured out how to change the way the ballerina spins. i can make it spin to the right AND to the left. ^_^. awesome.
She rotates clockwise always.I am right hand. My wife see her under counter-clockwise.She is left hand.
I see her spin both ways – sometimes clockwise and sometime anti. Watching with my husband we see her spin opposite ways at the same time. Very good. One of the guys who works with us (who claims to be logical) can only see her clockwise!!
There is nothing right in my left brain
There is nothing left in my right brain
but i can see her moving whichever way i want, so where do i stand
It’s clockwise for me but if you shake you head side to side it changes after a bit.
I took a quiz on Left-Right Dominance and 20 left 10 right for me making my left side dominant. So obviously which side you use varies with the situation. Example: Spinning Lady.
This is awesome! A friend of mine told me about this test.
When I first got on to this page, she was going counterclockwise. Then, all of a sudden, she switched to clockwise and I couldn’t for the life of me get her to go back the other way.
Then, I figured out THE TRICK: Move your eyes off of her image so that you can’t really focus on her but she is in your peripheral vision. You should still be able to get an impression of her leg spinning around, but you can’t really make out details. Then tell yourself what direction her leg is spinning (whichever direction you want) and keep looking at her in your unfocused peripheral vision until you see the leg spinning in the desired direction. Then slowly move your eyes over to focus on her, and voila! – she’ll be going the way you wanted to see. Works like a charm.
If anyone is curious or collecting weird data, I am right-handed but apparently also right-brain dominant (I think I’m wired a bit strangely – but have both brain hemispheres working quite a bit. I write poetry, play classical piano and also have a Masters in Biostatistics.) My Dad was born a lefty and then was “beaten by the school system” (figuratively, not literally) into using his right hand for everything. To this day, he is ambidextrous but prefers the use of his left hand for everything except handwriting.
I have also tested out INFJ on the Meyers Briggs test .
To all those doubters,
This is definitely not a program that switches her rotation direction at pre-set intervals! You can make her change direction ANYTIME YOU WANT!! I just submitted a post about it and tried it again – it works! Move your eyes just off of the picture so that she’s in your peripheral vision and unfocused and you can make her switch direction by “willing” her leg to go the other way. Then slowly move your eyes back to her. Than try it again and make her switch.
I’ve seen her just switch on me also when I didn’t want her to, and at other times seen her just spin clockwise even though I was trying to see how she could go counterclockwise. That’s how I figured out the technique above.
I also tried the advice of another post, which was to make her go counterclockwise by doing simple math in my mind, whether saying it out loud or not (12+13 = 25, 47-19 = 28, etc.) This works, but it takes longer than just looking at her on the peripheral. When I did the math experiment, and she was going counterclockwise, I also tried to make her go clockwise by doing right-brain dominant things (singing – didn’t work; imagining a rose or my Dad’s face – didn’t work; imagining a slice of pizza and trying to fit it back into the empty space it left when it was lifted from the whole pizza pie – VOILA!! THE PIZZA PIE THING WORKED and she switched back to clockwise for me). However, the fastest way to make her dance to your bidding is to do the peripheral eye thing I talked about in the first paragraph.
When observing an ambiguous figure that has two possible perceptual interpretations, the brain alternatively constructs each possible perception. We first see one perception and as observation of the figure continues long enough, the perception fatigues and is replaced by the alternative. When this fatigues, we again see the first alternative, etc. Simply stare at the dancer long enough and the direction of her twirling will reverse.
There is no such thing as “left-brained” and “right-brained” people unless an individual has half the brain surgically removed or inactivated by anesthetic. Both sides of the normal brain are always active, in interaction with each other, and participating in learning, memory, perception, imagination, and emotion. No normal human being thinks with one side of the brain at a time.
I see both ways, the first time I thought I noticed a change in her direction, now I can “see” her going in either direction without taking my eyes off her, I relax to see her go counter-clockwise and use intensity for the clockwise. Very cool.
I can make her spin both ways…mostly counter
Best way is to look at her leg the one that’s going up and down, then see it going what ever way you want. Still dose not make you right or left brained thou. All you are doing is tricking it.
yeah it really is good…..but i can only see it spin clockwise…..although i think i m going 2 crush my brain trying 2 move it counter clockwise…..hope it works…:-)
Under the list for right brain functions, you have seeing symbols listed as one of the functions. This is incorrect. The left-brain recognizes symbols (letters, numbers, signs, etc.), while the right-brain recognizes angles, distances, values, etc. This is very important, because when people go to draw, the start drawing symbols (left-brain) instead of using their artist right-brain.
John – It says “symbols and images”, not “seeing symbols”.
Letters and numbers are signs rather than symbols – i.e. they have a clearly defined meaning. (You are correct that the word ’symbol’ is sometimes used in this limited sense.)
A symbol (in the sense Brian is writing about here) is more ambiguous – it can have multiple meanings, even contradictory ones, which left-brain thinking finds hard to compute, but which makes perfect sense in right-brain thinking.
For example, the letter ‘X’ and the cross on a street sign indicating a crossroads are signs; but in Christianity the Cross is a symbol that has been interpreted in many different ways.
You’re on to something, here. Right brain always gets treated as disposable, ie. school budgets kick out the music, and arts programs when tightening the belt.
Intuition and perception are valuable. Ask Albert Einstein about how his feelings led to discovery. (If you’re right brained, you can do this, lol)
Is computer programming totally left brained, though?
I DEFINATELY see her switch!!!!
when she spins anti-clockwise her left leg is raised and her head is tilted to her left shoulder.
when she spins clcokwise her right leg is raised and head tilted to her right shoulder.
she is leading the spin with the outside of whichever foot/leg is lifted up.
i’ve been looking directly at her with my friend who finds it very hard to see her switch and i see it every time she switches which is definaly random….i am not willing her to change direction at all!!!
bit about me.
i’m 22 british and taking my final exam next week for my BEng Hons Automotive Engineering with Motorsport Uni Course. i’m not religous and would say i’v very science based. done maths in one form or other throughout my life. very technically minded and open to everyone. love rock music, hate dance and RnB with a passion. like to take risks on the race track and definately VERY logical. also have a wild imagination and like taking arty farty pics with my camera although i’m shit at drawing/painting. also like to get my hands dirty working on stuff like my car as i get huge satisfacion from it and i dont trust most mechanics…especially main dealers!!!
i guess both halves of my brain are working pretty hard then. wish the left side was a bit better though as would have helped my uni degree haha.
anyone got any thoughts on my results??
Every time I look at her she’s turning clockwise, and the only time I ever saw her turning counter clockwise (left brain) was when I was designing something and listening to music (using right brain). How much sense does that make?
It is not by something unexpectedly alters the perception, it is actually for me the simple difference of looking at a white paper causing her to spin left and colored paper she spins to the right. This is when I use my perifial vision to view her. Otherwise my natural view of her is spinning to the right.
Also she spins to the left if i look to the lower left corner of her square.
LOL… oh my goodness… it’s easy to see her switch to the left when you follow her foot that is spinning.
Now i can see her going left consistantly if i first follow her foot for a few cycles and slowly go up her body I can see her still spinning left. I can then resume seeing her going right if I quit intensionally focusing on her going left, since naturally I see her spinning to the right. (maybe I see her going to the right because I am used to things being clockwise? And rarely see things going counter clockwise? perhaps?)
I even followed the link to the 2 modified spinning ladies where it supposedly forces the viewer to be able to view both right and left, however, I found it very interesting that seeing both side by side without covering either spinning lady I was then able to see that she spins both directions at the same time or either direction that I freely choose her to spin regardless of the IMPLIED lines created for the purpose of forcing me to view her a certain way it actually did not force me but rather allowed me the freedom to choose to have both figures spin to the left, or both to spin to the right, or both to spin opposite of each other at my will. Is this the same for anyone else? Or is my brain so creative I’ve made myself able to be insane at my own choosing?
For those who think the animation is changing direction by itself and this is a trick, it is not.
When I first looked at this, it was moving Counter clockwise for me. I told my boyfriend to look at it, at the same time as me, and he saw it moving clockwise.
The correlation between being left brained or Right brained makes absolute sense here.
I am “left brained” and he is “right brained”, so it made sense why we would see it opposite directions.
After staring at it for 10 minutes, it was still moving counter clockwise for me. I tried every “trick” listed here, as far as looking at a certain area of the picture, and forcing it to change, but nothing worked.
I then tried thinking of something abstract, and almost immediately, it changed direction for me and I saw it clockwise. that lasted for a little while. Closing the page and reopening it I still saw it clockwise. But after waiting a few minutes, and letting my brain go back to its comfortable way, looked at it again and sure enough counter clockwise!
Its pretty cool to actually feel your brain making that change between which side it is using when looking at this.
You guys know, this being related to left brained or right brained is a complete myth. Oh, and while we’re at it, it technically doesn’t spin, it goes back and forth. I can see it spinning left, right, or back and forth on will.
At first I saw her spinning clockwise, but now I can it just looks like the dancer’s moving back and forth, or it switches between moving clockwise and counter-clockwise.
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