Spinning Girl
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The Spinning Girl – A Way to Test Your Brain Supremacy
If there’s one fun and easy way to know whether you use more of your left brain or your right brain, then it’s the spinning girl. Just one among plenty of popular optical illusions (virtual ones – because you really can’t have a spinning girl on paper), the spinning girl is actually a silhouette of a nude girl/dancer who’s turning. Whether clockwise or counter-clockwise is all up to you. Sounds puzzling? Read on.
As optical illusions go, you can either see her spinning clockwise or counter-clockwise. So what does this have to do with your left or right brain? Well, the determining factor of the spinning direction that you see is the part of the brain you use the most.
This means that if you see the girl turning clockwise – you’re using more of the right side of your brain. If you are, you are among those people who use more of the right side of the brain. This means usually using feeling rather than logic, among other characteristics. You tend to look at the big picture rather than small details, and because imagination is usually vivid, you always look, find and use symbols and images instead of words and language. Fantasy based, you also appreciate many things and believe in a lot of things rather than think critically about them. Right brained people are usually risk takers and impetuous.
If you look at the spinning girl and see her spinning counter clockwise, that means that you use more of the left side of the brain. Functions of the left brain would be using logic instead of feeling, and paying attention to details instead rather than the big picture. Left brain oriented people use words and language rather than symbols and images, and most often prefer or are better at mathematics than philosophy and arts. You most probably would be reality based, practical, strategic and safe.
Whether you initially see the spinning girl turning either clockwise or counter – clockwise, this doesn’t mean that you will never be able to see her spinning in the opposite direction. A little focus on the silhouette (or on her shadow), and viola! You’ll be surprised to see that she’s already spinning the other way.
The Spinning Girl Explained
Ah, the ever mysterious spinning girl. You see her spinning one way initially, and you know that you can see her spinning the other if you try. So you do. And you try, and try and try. Some people get to see her spin the other way around almost easily. Some people take a couple of minutes or tries before finally succeeding. And once you do get a hang of seeing her turn around one way and then the other – it’s really fun. Makes you wonder if it’s really your brain and your eyes, or just the computer playing tricks at you. Two people can be looking at the illusion the same time and see her spinning different ways. So if she happens to spin both ways at the same time – how does the spinning girl work? And how can you make her shift from one direction to the other?
Well, to make things a bit clearer, the spinning girl is not really an image of a spinning girl, nor is it a big virtual hoax (a big surprise there, eh?). The spinning girl is a 2D image of a girl simply shifting back and forth. But as human beings, we see things in 3D because our brains are not made to interpret two dimensional representations. Since the spinning girl is an image of a two dimensional nature, our brain processes this piece of visual information the best way it possibly can. And because our visual systems have been evolved to create assumptions for things they cannot interpret – it may be bound to create something near true, or create a false construction, which explains the case of optical illusions, one example of which is this. So, with the case of the spinning girl, our visual systems automatically assume that we are seeing a three dimensional image of a girl spinning either clockwise or counter – clockwise! This explains why we see a spinning image.
And once you do get a hang of seeing the image spin in one direction, simply focusing on the image’s shadow, feet or around the image may force your visual system to recreate the image. By this, you may be able to see the image spinning in the opposite direction.
Sounds fun, right? Check out the other fun optical illusions on http://www.boomeryearbook.com and leave your own comments an tricks! Meet other boomers and (as my old psychology teacher used to say), tickle your brain!
http://www.boomeryearbook.com is a social networking site connecting the Baby Boomer generation. Share your thoughts, rediscover old friends, or expand your mind with brain games provided by clinical psychologist Dr. Karen Turner. Join today to discover the many ways we are helping Boomers connect for fun and profit.
For some reason, I started seeing her turning clockwise. after a while, she was turning anti-clockwise. Then I could make her spin clockwise and then anti-clockwise..well not actually make her spin when I wanted to, but she could shift directions easily.
So does that mean that I’m a genius? LOL =)
At first, i can’t see her turning counter-clockwise.. but after a long time hahaha.. i finally made it! i have seen it turning counter-clockwise…! weee…!