Tuesday 16 October 2007
Quiz Of The Week
Something of an oddity I stumbled upon, somewhere on the net.
Does the girl turn clockwise, or anti-clockwise?
Apparently, there is no correct answer, as such.... 'though I am beginning to think this is a "hoax" optical illusion.... unless you know better?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
17 comments:
She turns anti-clockwise. Did I pass? Since there is no right or wrong answer, then I assume I passed! :)
Well Beenzzz.
Reportedly, she will turn any way you want her to (fnarr, fnarr).
Or rather, the perceived direction in which she turns is dependent upon whether the person viewing is left, or right brained.
Either that, or it's all complete bollocks, and someone has been winding me up....
So, counter-clockwise is left brained? Bollocks indeed!
Actually, she turns both clockwise and anti-clockwise in her routine either that or my brain is all over the place.
From JHL's comment I'd guess it's a Necker Cube type illusion.
This is when there isn't enough information available for your brain to decide on a choice, so it swirches between the two available options - back and forth, back and forth.
I found Beenzzz's comment interesting because I saw it only in a clockwise direction. So obviously his brain thought there ws enough info to arrive at a decision, mine thought there was enough info to arrive at the opposite decision.
As one of us found himself in the Necker Cube situation, and two of us didn't, but arrived at opposing decisions (these decisions are not conscious - the brain just does it), then I'd guess it's probably a poorly executed attempt to devise a new version of the Necker Cube.
Google: Necker Cube.
I have genuine knowledge about this sort of shit.
I might agree with you there, Sir Henry.
Conversely, I might not - it depends not on what I write, but on your perspcetive of what I write.
In any event, if this is not a hoax, it is anything but poorly executed....
Elmer
When I say poorly executed I'm not talking of the quality of the piece of animation - that was excellent.
I mean if it was a well-executed Necker-type illusion then everyone would have had the switching experience.
Try this one (It's not Necker - it's Stroop)
http://www.apa.org/science/stroop.html
Basically, it's impossible for you to see a written word in a language you are literate in without your brain processing it. If that word contradicts what you really want to say, it causes interference and fucks you up a bit. The above link is a very basic example. Psychologists can really fuck your head if they've a mind to.
Well - they do it all the time don't they. It's called advertising and journalism and politics and McCann. Fortunately the latter are piss-poor at it and they haven't the wit to hire people who are good at it and then just shut the fuck up.
This automatic reading of words is what makes subliminal techniques effective (and technically illegal - though the bastards still do it)
Should have gone to specsavers
She turns clockwise the whole time as I saw it.
Am I doing something wrong?
And how come Duff hasn't been here, claiming that there is no woman there at all, or that she spins around on her head, or something . Just to be fucking awkward ?
Sir HM: Thank you for pointing me toward that colour / text perception watchamacallit, my head is now more fucked up than ever....
Veritas: Hello again, dear girl.
Might I suggest that you look again at the spinning dancery type thing, but this time, don't have her as your focal point; look maybe an inch or two to the left or right, and then you might find that she turns her trick for you....
And as for Duff, I think (hope) that I might finally have got him off my case after posting a home truth here.
Elmer
Absolutely magic. Thank you. Focus a couple of inches to the left and she turns anti-clockwise, to the right and clockwise.
I'm going to have to think about this for a day or two.
Who's fucked who's head up?
I was wrong - this is very well designed and executed. A psychological test of some sort. Gotta go searching ...
That'll teach me - it IS some sort of Necker.
Elmer
It doesn't test brain-hemisphere dominance - it tests eye-dominance.
From the results reported above I am right eye dominant (approx 2/3 of people); beenzzz is left eye dominant (approx 1/3 of people. JHL is one of those relatively rare people who is dominant in neither eye.
The notion of actual "Eye dominance" is a huge simplification. With just about everything alse about us, the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and vice-versa. However, with the eyes, both sides of the brain control the visual field. That is, the left side of the brain controls (controls is wrong - "receives signals from" would be better)the right side of both eyes, the right side of the brain controls the left side of both eyes.
So would be better to say right or left visual field dominant.
Look to the left of the rotating figure and the light angle to the right visual field is sharper, therefore less input, so the signals from the left visual field are stronger (because more directly onto those left hand sides of the two retinas), so left visual field controls - she turns counter-clockwise. Reversed when you focus to the right side. That checks both visual fields are working correctly.
Then when you look directly at the rotating figure, the input strength to each fiels is equal, so whichever side is dominant dominates, and the figure appears to rotate accordingly.
Does that make sense? I worked most of it out last night while I was dropping off to sleep, and just checked this morning with google.
To talk of right-brain or left-brain dominance when talking about vision is nonsense. Approx 70% of the cortex is involved in visual processing: the entire rear of the cortex, both sides is involved in breaking the image down into its component parts and then rebuilding it, then the results are pretty well all sent down the right side of the brain where things like colour are added back in (processed separately from shape) and semantic interpration occurs. Essentially. ALL visual processing is rear and right - very little goes down left-side except that used for integrating image with sound.
Hell, it's a lot more complicated than that - but this is reasonably accurate, even if grossly simplified.
"And how come Duff hasn't been here"
Beware of what you wish for!
Truly, Veritas, it's like saying "Candyman" five times....
Sir Henry:
Thank you for giving us the benefit of the simplified result of your analysis....
Just please, don't, under any circumstances, think about posting the unabridged version - I don't think my blog could bear the weight....
Elmer
No sweat ...
I wouldn't want to even try. Even that version had me wishing by half-way through that I'd just left the whole thing alone. I wont bother next time. Promise.
In the meantime, if you want to find out how you can see something that doesn't exist, goggle Kaniza Figure. Brains are very strange creatures indeed.
For those troubled by this optical illusion, I'd recommend doing three tabs of acid, then watching it.
It won't make it any easier to work out, but it'll be a lot more fun.
Post a Comment