Check this out – it’s a simple and elegant little visual test which claims to show you whether or not you are right or left brain dominant.
Apparently, I’m right brain dominant. What are you?
LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe
RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses feeling
“big picture” oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can “get it” (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking
Heroes Not Zombies 
Iām right brain dominant too.
Hey, me too! But, hang on, maths and science are in the left brain column. Um . . . Did anyone else manage to get her to change direction? I tried, but it only happened when I glanced away: out of the corner of my eye she began to spin anti-clockwise, but then kept flipping back to clockwise. I wonder what the reasoning is behind this.
Well, Dad, this will probably come as no surprise, but I’m right-brained as well! I also tried it on Aurora and Sebbie, and they’re both right-brained too. That is such a fab test!!
ooh, ooh, I just got it to flip! I was just getting to the point of thinking this thing was a con and then looked away and when I looked back she was spinning anti-clockwise! Then within a second or two she was back to clockwise again. I can’t seem to make her change direction at will!
You know Phil, this whole left brain right brain thing has been a wee bit done to death I think. I think it’s too rigid in the way it’s usually portrayed. I really enjoyed a book “Whole New Mind” by Daniel Pink a while back (I should write a review of it here) where he argues the case for us all using ALL of our brains and not getting caught in a right is good, left is bad, or vice versa argument. I think a good scientist needs a whole brain!!
She keeps changing direction on me constantly. Which is, I think, consistent with how every time I take a left-brain, right-brain test, it tells me, “Whoa! Are you a weirdo or what? You’re smack in the middle!”
Interestingly, when I sat there and thought, “Now how on earth does this thing work?” she turned counter-clockwise the entire time. Evidence that at that point my left brain was more engaged?
Hello Bob:
I had the same experience of the test as you. I agree that it is desirable to use both left and right brain. For example, when I write, I generate my ideas in a visual map (right brain) Later, I prioritise and order my ideas in a (hopefully) logical manner (left brain).
We are often conditioned to think in either/or fashion, but often a synthesis is more effective.
First she was going left, then she stopped and started going right…then back left… It kept changing like that, but it seemed like her going left was a little stronger.
That aligns both with what I already knew and what another quiz showed. That is, I’m just almost 50/50, with a bit more strength on the logical side š But again, I kinda knew that before I took the quiz (that quiz is on my blog and I elaborate a bit about how that aligns with my life experiences).
I think if we saw her going both ways, that’s a good thing š We need to use both sides of our brain. I think our world looks the way it does because most of us haven’t been doing that, most have let there right side kinda atrophy š
In the “Matrix,” the scene where Neo is shooting with both hands (and wasn’t Trinity also?) as well as the fact that he and she were doing this wonderfully seemingly synchronized “dance” in whooping-ass on the bad guys, hehe, is representing a crucial message for us. Left/right hands, left/right brain, male/female — it’s saying we’ve messed up by eliminating one side of ourselves (right/female/intuitive/emotional/creative — and reflective of that, treating women as lesser people, the oppression of them…). This scene was strongly representing the answer to our world’s ills. Balance.
Peace,
Dove
psipsina, galbabright and dovelove, I’m privileged to have the company of people who use their WHOLE brains! Seriously, I do agree – which reminds me – I must get round to doing a post on Pink’s Whole New Mind
[…] bobleckridge I read this book some time ago but it came back to my mind when I stumbled across the dancer who claims to reveal whether your are dominantly left-brained or right-brained. The book in question is “A Whole New Mind”, by Daniel H. Pink (ISBN 1-904879-57-8). […]
I don’t understand! I can tick off everything on the left-brained list except for risk taker and impetuous, but I cannot get the dancer to go clockwise!!! I failed my maths ‘0’ level three times!!!!! I’m a designer and the only part of an i.q. test I can do is the spatial awareness section! š¦
So, does this make sense??
How do you get in contact with your left-brain????
Oh don’t worry Beatrix, it’s just a bit of fun really! I’m not a great fan of this left brain right brain thing – as far as I know the brain really functions much more as a whole organ and splitting it into two halves is a wee bit unreal!
You might like Daniel Pink’s Whole New Mind – you’ll see a post here on my blog reviewing it – its got lots of exercises to you can do for getting your whole brain to work!!
I’m really interested in reading that book, just seen your other post about it, but just to say, I went back to the spinning lady again and she is turning clockwise today – !!
She must be very popular, that page has had 1650 comments!
I just thought of a post I wrote ages ago, I wonder if this exercise really does help in harmonising both sides of the brain?? – http://constantstateofflux.wordpress.com/2007/03/06/reading-auras/
I’ve been able to make it go both ways since I first saw it.
The answer is a good whisky, preferably single malt, undiluted.
Ah yes Andy I completely agree the ONLY way to have a single malt is undiluted!
Defo right brain.. Then full bottle Chateau Belarave Haut Medoc 2004 lots of squinting and she went anti clockwise.. log off log on and clockwise only .. so think right brainmostly unless well oiled š
hmm, fallen angel, you make a good point there….the psychoactive potential of Medoc! But what’s it doing? Switching the left side ON or the right side OFF? š
That is an interesting test. I saw it turning counterclockwise but thought I imagined it after I read the sidebar and looked back and it was going clockwise. I was able to make it change back and forth a couple of times and then couldn’t do it anymore.
Glad I dropped by.
This image is indeed pretty funny. I’ve worked on a few lateralization experiments in the past, and, for all I’ve studied while doing so, I can say that dominant hemispheres are plain pop-legends. We can talk of such domination only with several restrictions, and only for specific brain functions. Comparing fMRIs is a fun way to see that, and also the studies with Sodium Thiopental. For example, most people have their speaking function performed mostly on the left side, but it shows no relation with them being right or left-handed (motor function dominance). As for the list of characteristics for left or right brain dominants… well… I’d prefer checking my horoscope š
Bummer… I had doubts on my comment above and made a quick check on google. Seems I’m wrong about speaking and motor domince being statistically unrelated š What the hell, it’s been too long since I worked on it. Anyway, another fun studies I forgot to mention was the Sperry’s split-brain experiments. It’s amazing how counter-intuitive the results of such studies could be – so much that it surprises us while reading, thus the “fun” part.
Ah well…it’s just a bit of fun really. The whole left brain right brain thing is too reductionist for me anyway. Isn’t it true that things like speech centres have been discovered to be more complex than previously understood anyway? I mean, aren’t we finding from fMRIs and so on that brain functioning is more complex than the previously rather simplistic mapping of clusters of neurones to specific functions?
By the way……which half of the brain is best for reading a horoscope? š
This was interesting … I was exactly half and half.
It is easy to make her change directions at will… just stare at the space at the feet in between the figure and the shadow…
I was half and half too…she kept spinning both ways, fair made my head spin! Is there a scientific basis to this test?
http://amloki.blogspot.com
If I imagine I am looking down on her, she goes couterclockwise, otherwise, she spins clockwise
I am left brained according to other tests, but I’m extremly reallity based and intuitive, and extremely not verbal or fantacy oriented.
When I initially looked she was dancing clockwise, after a few seconds ie was anti clockwise. It just kept changing direction, but stronger side seemed to be clockwise.
I couldn’t seem to get her to stop changing direction! Perhaps that is what I am working through now, I’m being pulled in opposite directions as my brains fight for domination.
I did it! Yay! It started hard, but now I can do it easily!!
This is over simplistic.
The test only tests one portion of the brain.
Some people, like me, see the dancer either turning clockwise at one time and anti-clockwise on another.
Women tend to use both hemispheres of the brain in tandem more frequently, and for a wider range of tasks, than men. That is, they are less rigidly left or right brain dominant.
In healthy individuals, both sides of the brain are used for performing most functions, although the hemispheres process input differently.
Just look at the shadow. She’s obviously moving anti-clockwise.
Left by education and environment but I am probably right by genetics…
I’ve done this one before and each time she goes one way and then goes the other, which is not suprising as I always come out on a sort of plateau with these either/or types of test. That should mean I’m balanced, but what kind of balanced, who knows!
As an artist, I am more right-brain dominant but years ago after side effects of a (prescribed) drug decimated quite a lot of my ability to visualise and remember dreams, I think I began developing my left-brain in compensation.