In the last few days I have received “The Spinning Lady” several times over email. In early October, Australia’s Herald Sun published an article with an animated image of “The Spinning Lady” who has fascinating characteristics, the beauty of which is definitely in the eye of the beholder. Those viewers using predominantly the right side of their brains will perceive the lady as spinning in a clockwise direction. Those who see her turning counterclockwise are operating from the left side of their brains. Now here’s the funny part: some viewers will see her alternating between counter- and clockwise. Others, no matter how hard they try, will only see her turning one way. And still others, with a little practice, will be able to change the direction she seems to be spinning at will. Try it and see for yourself which side of you brain, if either, dominates.
If you find yourself fascinated about this phenomenon, try googling right brain/left brain functioning and surf through the world of information online about our brains. A good place to start with just one article is here, in Wikipedia.
I can see her dancing in both directions.
And I thought I was was heavily right brained.
It actually turns out to be a pretty good
eye exercise for me.
I’m facinated about the creation of this.
Pretty cool.
……Linda
Fascinating! I saw her spinning clockwise …
Deborah
How about duckrabbit?
http://www.paulstgeorge.com/duckrabbit/
Terrific idea.
Steve
I find it irresistible not to wonder aloud in what direction Galileo’s head could be spinning tonight. My hope would be that he rests in peace and that his head is NOT spinning in his grave. If Galileo’s head is spinning, is it spinning to the left or the right, toward the East or the West? How, now, can Galileo possibly find peace when top-rank scientists refuse to speak out clearly regarding whatsoever they believe to be true about the distinctly human predicament presented to humanity in our time by certain unbridled activities of the human species that are threatening to engulf the planetary home God has blessed us to inhabit?
Comments such as Steve’s echo the voices of many who are concerned about human activity and the overall effect on the environment. The best we can hope for is education and awareness, and then trying to use our various talents to the betterman of humankind whether it be in a physical, mental, emotional or spiritual sphere. Those four intersecting spheres contain the vastness of all there is, and if we become truy conscious of ourselves, our potential, and our relationship to our environment, we can no longer intentionally hurt the earth. I believe that humans have an innate goodness, and we all have a fundamental intelligence adjacent to facts we are taught, and that we will find a way to overcome the massive challenges facing us in the present and throughout the future. Truly, in my mind, it can go no other way, as I do not believe we have the long-term patience or tolerance for self-destruction. So, with this post in particular, let’s contemplate our minds — the hemispheres of our brains and how they work — finding out from which perspective we each can make our best contribution, and then do our best wherever we are in whatever way we can. Programs like Earth and Sky and the comments of the E&S community on these blogs are a great support mechanism for empowering positive change. Thanks to all who have such enthusiam.
We’ve strayed from the spinning lady … she deserves attention … I’m seeing her spin in both directions now, each time I look at her again … and I’m wondering with the way I see her has to do with what activity I was doing just before I looked …
I also really like Beverly’s idea of just doing our best wherever we are.
Oh PLEEZE…You have been hoaxed…Bigtime! She changes direction approximately every 3 minutes,so how you see her depends soley on where you come in on the cycle.
Goodness.
Fairscarbgorough, believe it or not, it is not a hoax. There are some people who see her spinning in one direction no matter how long they stare at her.I myself can change her direction at will. Within any 3 minute period I can change my perception of her direction many times. I suggest getting others to look at the same screen with you, and you will see that you are not all having the same experience. Try it!
Really? Right-brained people don’t perceive foreshortening? That’s just sad.
She does look like she’s spinning both ways if you block everything from the ankles down, but unless she’s hovering over a fun-house mirror or has freakish, constantly expanding and shrinking feet, she’s spinning clockwise - Her less mobile foot shows the toes as growing larger during half the rotation and smaller during the other half. In the reflection / shadow / whatever below her, it’s even more pronounced. Anyone who’s ever used a telescope, taken an art class, or closed one eye should know that when you look at a 2-d representation of a 3-d object, objects of unchanging size take up a larger amount of your field of view (appear larger) as they get closer - unless someone knows of an exception - anyone?
I wonder if right-brained people also think the moon illusion is real…
I don’t know - I think Fairscarborough may be right.
There’s glitches all throughout the playback, but there’s a glitch every 130 turns where the the girl changes direction. I clearly see her spinning one way, unable to bend my perception by covering the feet like Left-Brainer says, then there’s a glitch in the video and she turns the other way for another 130 turns, then the glitch again at another 130 and she changes direction again. Maybe I’m cyclicly right- then left-brained at an exact interval of 130 girl-turns (I do tend to test strongly for both hemispheres) but 130 turns is about 3 minutes, like Fairscarborough suggested, and looking away and back doesn’t change anything for me.
But I don’t know. Maybe I’m not the best judge - I thought the moon illusion was real, until I heard about it on Earth & Sky: http://www.earthsky.org/radioshows/45362/moon-illusion
Has anyone tried having more than one person watch it at the same time to see if two people can see it differently at the same time?
Oh dear. Eating crow here…Bigtime. I posed this illusion (?) to all my high school classes and we were definitely seeing things differently. I teach the dire state of the environment year round, so this was great fun and gave rise to lively discussions all day long. Many pardons, and thanks for sharing this! Trick or Treat?
I publish a poll / survey to know what is more common, saw her spinning clockwise or anti-clockwise.
You can see the results and vote here:
Right Brain vs Left Brain Survey / Poll - Mind optical illusion
I see her spin both directions, and not every three minutes but every few seconds. My husband can only see her go clockwise and gets really pissed at me when I say she has changed directions!!! Must be jealous of my genius, I did start college at 53 after all!! She changes before my eyes with a split-second stop and then proceeds the other way.
I have read three message areas like this one but no one has mentioned this. When she is spinning clockwise, she is hopping on her left leg and when she spins counter-clockwise she is hopping on her right leg. Her leg change is instant for me as she changes directions.
Very odd. Yes, the leg that’s extended changes. How can this be just a perceptual thing? This is a small GIF image, and I downloaded it onto my computer. I even enlarged it to see if there was anything I could see to explain it. I cannot explain it. Her front and back are differently shaped — how can she change the leg that’s extended and retain the same shape? How can this be just an illusion? Very odd. I’m going to read the Wikipedia article, so I hope there’s some explanation for this very strange thing.
Tried this by myself and saw dancer spinning clockwise and could not make her spin counter-clockwise. Then saw the traits of “right brained” versus “left brained.”
Then I tried this with my wife. We both looked at it at the exact same time and I asked her which way the dancer was spinning. Given the description of “left-brained” I was fairly certain she would say “counter-clockwise” and she did. Then, looking at the dancer (and, seeing her spin clockwise) I asked her again, “which direction” and she said (again “counter-clockwise.” No matter how hard I “tried,” she always spun clockwise.
Then I looked at the description of “right brain” versus “left brain” and saw that “right brain” people are holistic and “left brain” people are rational and sequential. I then looked at ONLY one part of the dancer (her extended arm). Once I concentrated on only one part of the dancer, she started spinning COUNTER-CLOCKWISE. Once I let me concentration on ONLY one part lapse and saw the dancer as a whole, she ceased spinning COUNTER-CLOCKWISE and began spinning CLOCKWISE again.
We are getting the most interesting responses to this little optical brain test. I have heard privately from many people as well as comments posted here on this blog. Every response has a slightly different twist to it (no pun intended!). Thanks so much for your feedback. I encourage all new readers to tell us your results. We’re interested, and they are fascinating!
When staring straight ahead, I could see nothing but clockwise turning.
But I noticed when glancing out the window, about 70 degrees off the screen, she seemed to change directions back and forth every couple seconds or so.
Funny, from everything else I’ve heard of right and left brained people, I always thought I was a lefty.
A friend forwarded this post and I have tried it with several classrooms of elementary students. It is incredible to watch a group of 25 children, holding their fingers in the air, spinning them in the corresponding directions that they see the dancer moving. At no time did the entire group indicate the same direction. Some students changed directions constantly while others indicated only one direction or another. It was a fascinating experience.
I now use this with part of my curriculum to help students understand the importance of perception.
I think it would be very interesting to see a study done where subjects view this animation and indicate the perceived direction of the lady by pressing a button for clockwise and vice versa. While they are doing this they are undergoing a scan for brain activity. Then the results could be checked to see if there is a correllation between the button presses and what is recorded by the scan at the same moment.
Of course, this (or something very similar) has probably been done already.
Excellent suggestion!
Fairscarborough & Neil turn out to be correct. To those of you seeing the dancer turn clockwise/counter clockwise, don’t blame your brain just yet. I opened the image in Adobe Image Ready, there animated dancer image consist of 36 frames. In Frame 1 to 17, her left foot stick on the ground. Frame 18-34, it’s her right foot. Try it for your self!
I watched her for ten minutes straight and try as I did to see her spin the other way I only perceived her going clockwise thus invalidating the hoax idea. I’ve always known I’ve been predominantly right brained, this just supports what I always knew plus that
I’m an intensely visual learner and can remember anything visual for long-term periods, almost I suppose as a photographic memory would operate. Then there’s the creativity aspect. I’ve never really had to read manuals or “how to” books on how to write a story or make up a musical piece or think of abstract ideas in a new way I’ve always just been able to do it naturally and I guess that’s why I’ve always had a sort of conflict with the school system. They emphasize a lot of memorization of data that really doesn’t allow you to think creatively. Even in the art programs they’re very rigid on how they treat what they teach and I know for me it always left me wanting. Creativity was left out, surprisingly even in art! And I suppose in many ways this society in general marginalizes creative thinkers and hinders them from reaching their maximum potential. They’re calling the people who memorize data and regurgitate it on tests geniuses, when real genius is creativity in my opinion, and it’s a real shame to think what the world is losing out on with less creativity.
Andrew,
I couldn’t agree more.
Thanks for your post.