I saw this on Rob Neyer's blog.
Here is an interesting web page. Does it look to you like the dancer is going clockwise or counterclockwise?
I can only see the dancer going clockwise (which isn't what one would expect, if the premise behind the page were correct), though I am curious to try concentrating hard enough to make it go counterclockwise.
I was having a brief conversation with a sensory psychologist at lunch today; I want to show this web page to him and see what he thinks.
7 hours ago
8 comments:
Clockwise, also. This is no surprise at all to me, since years ago I learned that my brain is reversed from the stereotype of left=logic, right=artsy crap. My right hemisphere is extremely active and handles all the logic, calculation, etc., while my left hemisphere is pretty much dormant. As one would expect from such an extreme difference between hemispheres, I can't even imagine how that graphic could appear counter-clockwise, no matter how hard I concentrate. :-)
Sounds like you're in much the same situation. I gather it's not especially rare for the left-right stereotype to be completely backwards like this...
Clockwise here as well. Can't figure out how to get it to switch, my logic can't see where it would be able to do so.
Clockwise.
Now, if I have the power to stop it, I can force my perception either way. (I loaded up the .gif in The Gimp, and played around with layers.)
What became apparent, after a while, is that there seem to be a lot of cues as to what the perspective is, but they're intentionally contradictory. Also, the camera is NOT fixed relative to the axis of rotation, but rather it moves up and down in a way that further obfuscates the truth.
Now, the image unnerved me a bit at first. When I stopped it, and played it frame by frame, I could see some of the tricks they used (moving camera) to try and give you mixed signals as to the perspective. Once I figured that out (intentionally mixed signals), I felt a lot better about how awkward the picture felt at first.
Not a single counterclockwise in this group yet. Neyer wrote that he saw it as counterclockwise the first time he looked at it and clockwise every subsequent time. (He's a writer for espn.com, so I don't plan on e-mailing him to ask if he can quantify how his perception changed.)
Maybe I'll be able to find something like this in a scientific paper because my curiosity is piqued.
Totally clockwise. I can understand *how* someone could see it counterclockwise, but I just can't do it myself.
i saw it counterclockwise at first, (viewed from above right?). Then after 2 or 3 minutes of concentrating, blinking, and mainly staring at the feet it suddenly switched to the other direction. Took me a further minute to get her going back the other way again...
Intruiging stuff
Clockwise first, got it to switch pretty quickly if I focused on the space between her foot and the shadow that flashes in and out of the picture. If I look at that space and *know* that she's supposed to be spinning the other way, I can get her to flip. I got her to switch directions several times. Try this: focus on the direction of the shadow of her foot, trying to ignore her. Defocusing your eyes likely helps.
GFreak: I tried your method and it worked. I saw the dancer switch from clockwise to counterclockwise but when I don't focus on the one spot, she travels clockwise again. The thing that's really bizarre is the transition time when the switch occurs. (That was pretty freaky.) An interesting psychological experiment would be to get people to focus as you suggest and determine at what time such a switch occurs.
Also, your comment about focusing in a specific location brings up a very good point --- namely, whether one sees the dancer moving counterclockwise or clockwise has a lot to do with where one is focusing (or perhaps whether one is looking in detail at a small part of things or attempting to take in the big picture).
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