A website called Switched has an article about the 25 best optical illusions on the web, and I want to ask you about one of them.
This illusion is supposed to tell you if you’re right or left-brained. Look at animated picture. Is she moving clockwise, or counter-clockwise?
I looked at it for a minute or so, and was surprised how many people said that it was moving in the opposite direction thanI saw it, and even more so by the people who said they could see it moving both directions because it was clearly moving in one direction. But I figured out how to get it to consistently switch directions!
Without reading the comments on that page or the spoiler, see if you can too. We’ll wait.
Okay, if you did get it to switch directions, did you do it by
focusing on where the gray shadow foot meets the black silhouette? That’s how I get it to move, but someone else said it’ll move if you hum or do math problems in your head, and it seems to work too.
So…
A. Which direction did you initially see it moving in?
B. Could you get it to switch directions? How about while trying the two things in the spoiler box?
She spins clockwise at first glance. While I’m reading the attached article, she changes direction. I’ll look at her for a few moments going counterclockwise until she suddenly switches directions again. I can’t make her switch out of clockwise rotation without looking away and reading some more of the article. Then she’ll change for a few moments again.
I can make her switch directions by looking at her legs, then away, then back again. Much harder staring straight at her whole body the whole time, though I did it once.
For what it’s worth ( probably very little ), I’ve taken a two or three left brain/right brain tests on the web and I invariably come out as very balanced between the two - almost dead center.
Hmmm. I see her spinning clockwise. Her grounded foot is sorta like the hour hand, and the raised foot would be the minute hand. I don’t seem to be equipped to see her reverse direction.
I always see it deiseil, and every time this pops up so do most of the people on the Dope, but the article always insists most people see it going widdershins. (yeah, I didn’t feel like saying clockwise or counterclockwise, sue me)
I can easily get it to switch by reading the article, and get it to go back by humming a tune or just waiting.
Odd. First look I saw her spinning counter-clockwise. And I am a highly creative kind of person, so I’m a bit dubious about this “test.”
I made her switch to clockwise by staring at the space between her legs for a bit, defocusing, and then blinking. It helps if I don’t allow myself to see her arms at all.
When I go back to looking at if after looking elsewhere I now see it moving in the same direction that I last left off.
I find the easiest way to get her to switch is just to move my eyes in a circle in the desired direction as I watch her. Hard to describe but hopefully you know what I mean.
http://boardstest.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=483167 Not quite a ‘zombie thread’. The last post was only two days ago.
eta. FWIW, we have established that the image doesn’t actually change direction, and that it is just our perception of it that alters.
I remember a thread about this specific illusion before, as well.
Clockwise at first. I tried all kinds of eye movements to get her counter, to no avail. She only switched to counter-clockwise when I read some of the article, then glanced back. Very easy to switch BACK to clockwise - sort of a tenuous hold on the counter-clockwise image.
First glance clockwise.
Fairly effortless to get her to switch directions though.
Can even get it now to where she sways back and forth with her leg always facing you. Swings left, touches the left wall, reverse directions, swing right, touch the right wall, reverse directions, repeat. Like a pendulum.
I’m trying like hell to get her to go counterclockwise, and I can’t see it. What am I doing wrong? I tried focusing on her feet, looking away and looking back a few times, etc. but I can only see her going clockwise.
At first glance, it was CCW. I couldn’t get it to switch at all. Then I read the article, and looked back, and it was CW. Couldn’t get it to switch again for a while. Then suddenly, it did. Weird. Now it’s pretty easy to get it to switch.
She’s going clockwise, and nothing I do will get her to go counter-clockwise. i tried squinting, covering one eye, looking away and back, looking at just her feet, her hand, her pony tail, but she only goes clockwise. Not even a tiny bit counter.