27 January 2008

Which Half of Your Brain is Dominant?

Which way is the dancer twirling? Clockwise or counter clockwise?



If she's moving counter clockwise, you are left brain dominant. If she's moving clockwise, you are right brain dominant.

Click through here is a list of the differences in the cognitive styles. Also, here's a small list of right vs. left characteristics.

Left Brain

Linear
Sequential
Symbolic
Logical
Verbal
Reality-based

Right Brain

Holistic
Random
Concrete
Intuitive
Nonverbal
Fantasy-oriented

For the record, I cannot get the dancer to twirl counter clockwise, suggesting that I'm right brained. I'm big on patterns, have disregard for authority or ranking, am free with feelings, and am spontaneous. But I am no good at manipulating objects (the only people worse at parallel parking then me don't bother, which makes me, officially, the least capable person to actually still try), something I'd supposedly be good at if I were right brained. And I do prefer talking and writing, which should make me left brain. But in spite of all that, the dancer only moves clockwise for me.

You?
[And thanks, Jordan, for another intriguing bit of cognitive science trivia.]

13 comments:

cce said...

I just can't see how she could move clockwise for anyone...she's obviously moving counter-clockwise.
I have always believed that the creative folks in the world are left-brained. I have always thought of myself as creative, verbal, but creative. This quiz gives me pause. I'm not sure what I am now. But that dancer is definitely NOT moving clock-wise.

exskindiver said...

wow cc and i are completely opposite, as the dancer (with an absolute knock-out body i should add) only moves clockwise for me.
i love this thing.
thank you jordan for giving your father something other than his political rants to write about.

K-Kix said...

I see the dancer twirling both ways. Sometimes she can go in one direction for long periods of time and at times she becomes a tizzying swirl of a twirler.

How strange! T'is amazing this thing.

exskindiver said...

I uhm, stole this.

David said...

I'm with Karen. It goes both ways for me intermittently. We're obviously stuck in between and I intepret that to mean we lack strong tendencies in any area. I can buy that.

Jordan said...

If you look at her foot (the one that would be touching the floor if she wasn't floating) for a while, she'll start spinning in the opposite direction (generally). I've been practicing and now I can make her twist back and forth (though before she only went counter-clockwise).

Also, dad asked which side deals with time. It's the left, for the record...

Dave said...

How come symbolic is in the left brain column and concrete is in the other? If I were doing a which word doesn't fit test, I'd swap them.

Ron Davison said...

cce,
I least we share a sense of conviction.

Xsd,
rants! rants! I don't rant. I just have certain convictions I'm sure are right. er, oh no ...

Karen and David,
less jealous people would call you whole brained, balanced, wise. I will, instead, call you show offs.

Jordan,
Now I really feel inadequate. I can't even make her switch with your instructions. Sigh.

Dave,
yeah. I was about to explain why (as if I had a clue) but then I realized that I'm with you on this).

S said...

i can see her only counter-clockwise.

interesting! thanks for sharing it.

S said...

oops. now she's moving clockwise.

Ron Davison said...

S-mom,
I'm impressed. Only after advice from Jordan and Xsd and looking at her off and on all day did I finally break out of the clockwise conviction and be able to see her move in either direction. I still can't seem to shake the left-leaning convictions, though.

Anonymous said...

yay for non-political blogs!

and the girl was OBVIOUSLY moving clockwise. :)

Ron Davison said...

Damon,
Obviously.
(and, for the record, everything is political.)