Isodirectional/Non Isodirectional Psychological Article

HOW SMART IS YOUR RIGHT FOOT?

You have to try this please, it takes
2 seconds. I could not believe this!
It is from an orthopedic surgeon.

This will boggle your mind and you will
keep trying over and over again to see
if you can outsmart your foot,
but, you can’t.

It’s pre-programmed in your brain!

1. Without anyone watching you
(they will think you are GOOFY….)
and while sitting at your desk in
front of your computer, lift your
right foot off the floor and make
clockwise circles.

2. Now, while doing this, draw the
number ‘6′ in the air with your right
hand. Your foot will change direction.

I told you so!!! And there’s nothing you
can do about it! You and I both know how
stupid it is, but before the day is done
you are going to try it again, if you’ve
not already done so.

Psychological Articles Explaining Brain Coordination

by BoomerYearbook.com

A silly little trick has been circulating throughout the cyber world for some time, similar to trying to pat your head and rub your stomach, but this one involves the coordinating movements of your hands and feet. The foot trick goes something like this: While sitting upright in a chair, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles. Then, while making clockwise circles with your right foot, draw the number 6 in the air with your right hand. The catch is to try to keep your right foot moving in a clockwise direction while drawing the ‘6’ in the air. It is very difficult, if not impossible for some. So, what’s the deal? Read on. This psychological article will explain.

There is a plausible explanation for the challenge to move your foot in a clockwise direction while making a counter-clockwise motion with your hand. The difficulty is not limited to hand/foot coordination. Try this other little muscle coordination test (this one is off the cuff): hold both arms out in front of you, bent at the elbow (hand should be pointed up, palms facing one another). First, move your right arm in forward circle. Once you have your right arm moving forward, move your left arm in backward circles simultaneously. Can you do it? Accurately? Keeping your movements in circles? (Yeah, right. No one was looking as you were reading this psychological article explanation, so who is going to challenge you?)

If you cannot, no matter how hard you try, make your arms and legs move in opposite directions you are not alone. According to a psychological article by David Rosenbaum, Penn State University, published in November/December Journal of Experimental Psychology, your brain is programmed a certain way. The psychological article explains that the brain is the sophisticated wiring that controls our muscle movements. Because of how we are programmed, the brain naturally has more trouble coordinating movements that are in different directions, or non-isodirectional. Why? you ask. Give that question some thought. Do you more often need to use your limbs in conjunction with one another or in contradiction to one another? Here are a few activities that you may have participated in recently, or at least observed, that will demonstrate coordinated muscle movements: 1) riding a bicycle. Do your legs move in the same direction or opposite directions? If they moved in opposite directions you would never move from square one; 2) swinging a bat. Both arms must move together; 3) folding clothes. The actions are mirror images, but are still in the same direction. Also, do not confuse ‘opposite’ with ‘alternating’. Although some of our movements may alternate, they are still in the same direction. It came on our respective mental hard-drives, luckily.

And why does all of this matter? There have been numerous psychological articles that have reported studies that tested the effects of stroke on motor coordination. The general consensus is that non-isodirectional movements are difficult under normal circumstances. For stroke patients, both isodirectional and non-isodirectional movements are compromised not only on the lesioned brain hemisphere but also on the “unaffected” hemisphere. The conclusion is that both the left and right hemispheres are needed for coordinated muscle movements. When a person suffers a stroke, regardless of the side in which the stroke occurred, the synchronization of motor control movements is negatively affected.

Isodirectional Brain-from article by Deric Bownds

What did this first in Boomer Yearbook’s series of psychological articles help you discover about your own abilities to move your limbs in opposite directions? Are you the exception or the rule? Tell us how your own tests turned out on BoomerYearbook.com.

www.boomeryearbook.com is a social networking site connecting the Baby Boomer generation. Share your thoughts, rediscover old friends, or expand your mind with psychological articles and brain games provided by clinical psychologist, Dr. Karen Turner. Join today to discover the many ways we are helping the Baby Boomers connect for fun and profit.

by BoomerYearbook.com

At some point in our lives, all of us have encountered the phenomenon of optical illusions and many of us have wondered exactly what is it that causes these varying perceptions. In 1992, Matthew Luckiesh in his book “Visual Illusions: Their Causes, Characteristics and Applications”, illuminated three main causative factors in optical illusions; perception, imagination, and observation. While most of us possess an imagination, some of us are blessed with being able to imagine in intricate multifaceted dimensional ways whereas others are more concrete and conservative imaginers. Aside from the powers of imagination, individuals also are unique in their abilities to observe and perceive. As Luckiesh said, “only part of what is perceived comes through the senses from the object. The remainder always comes from within.”

Thus if an individual were to take a look at the four above pictures, they would “see” these objects from their unique viewpoint of subjective Imagination, Observation and Perception.

It’s a neat little exercise that you can try with your friends. It doesn’t mean you should try and analyze their answers. It’s meant to be a fun exercise just to show that a picture is truly worth a thousand words, and there is a great deal of grey area when we talk about “objective” perception.

Now if these pictures were put in front of me for example and I had to use my imagination; this is what I would have come up with.

In picture one I would imagine this as being a music stand to hold sheet music. The arrow would be just as it seems a simple arrow. Bet you can guess right off the top I don’t have a vivid imagination.  With the second picture, I would have to say the writing gives away the picture but you had to admit it looks more like a tree than a bush, while at least to me. I really had to study picture three to determine that it looked like a birds head. Number four was intriguing in that it had no beginning or an end.

Now if we move on to the observation part of this exercise how many can honestly say they noticed the background. If you were to place your hand over the picture do you really think you would recall the background colors? Interestingly some people would whereas others won’t.

From my personal subjective point of view, I found the pictures mundane and unexciting. Can you guess that I am not an artist or architect, and alas, not even a particularly creative imaginer? However, when comparing notes with my co-worker, she was able to create wonderful three dimensional possibilities and could study the pictures for the smallest of clues. Ah, but she is a gestalt psychologist and told me that the reason I could not see a beginning or end to picture number four is that our minds create a “completeness” and fill in perceptual blanks. Personally, I found picture number four to be most interesting…Hmm. Wonder what that says about me?

Carrying out an exercise such as I have outlined here is for entertainment purposes only. It can be fascinating to hear the perceptions from a group of friends than just singly looking at the illusions.

If there were anything to be learned from this exercise of comparing viewpoints on optical illusions it’s to recognize just how differently individuals perceive any situation. It’s always interesting to note how several people can look at one situation yet all take something different from its context.

You could even go a step further with this exercise and ask each person to make up a story about the picture. Then you will be in for some real fun. Or if you are the more scholarly type, you can read more on the psychological study of perception or the philosophical understanding of epistemology (study of human knowledge), or you can join boomer yearbook and hear what others have to say.

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.