Bah. OK. I first saw this phenomenon on Kat’s blog, where she refers to this article. Later, an author in a Yahoo! group links to another article on it and yet another blog post on it.

The phenomenon? This animation:

…and all the internet discussions about it.

I don’t understand the phenomenon, really, because it all seems so fairly simple to me. I don’t really believe that it indicates which side of the brain anyone uses, but perhaps that’s because I’m one of those people who are supposed to be “balanced”—see here and here—and can see it both ways.

But now I have this urge to debunk the whole thing or break it down for people so that they see it my way, too. It’s really not that hard. Here were my quick impressions:

First off, completely irrelevant to the topic at hand … the girl is a Poser figure, one of the early ones nicknamed “Posette” by Poser artists, with the ponytail hair prop attached. I’m guessing Poser version 2 or 3, possibly 4, but it’s the female figure that comes with the old software and not one of those bought from Daz3D like Victoria.

Second … the figure is posed rather carelessly. It might actually be one of the standard library poses, but I can’t be certain of that without opening up Poser myself. Anyway, the head is tilted to one side. One arm is lifted and bent. One leg is lifted, with the toe pointed. The hands are in the default pose, that awful half curled pose of hands at rest, which is why I say the figure is posed rather carelessly. No one took any real time to pose this figure. When I pose a figure in Poser, I pay special attention to the hands and give them some life. The foot on the standing leg is also kind of a giveaway, as the angle (with the foot slightly back instead of slightly pointed) looks like it’s in the default, too.

Third … the figure is spinning along the Y-axis, her balance slightly off center. The ground is turned off, the shadows on, and all we have is her silhouette. It should be a fairly easy animation to make in Poser, but why in God’s name would anyone want to? It’s so … ugly! And so flat!

So flat that you don’t get many cues to determine depth or angle of perception. Therefore, your mind has to fill in the blanks before you determine if she’s going clockwise or counter-clockwise.

Now, how do YOU see it? As I mentioned, I can see it both ways and can switch pretty easily. The same goes for H.E.

If you can’t see it both ways, or if you can’t switch easily, read on.

If her head is tilted to the right, if her right arm and right leg are lifted, then she appears to go clockwise. If her head is tilted to the left, if her left arm and left leg are lifted, then she appears to go counter-clockwise. So … if you want to see her going clockwise or counter-clockwise, simply convince yourself that the corresponding pose is true, and you will see it that way.

OK?

And now here’s why I don’t believe how you see the animation has any real bearing on whether you use the right side of the brain more than the left side or vice versa:

It’s been long touted that right-handed people are considered to be more left-brained. That’s the logical side of the brain. Left-handed people are considered to be more right-brained, which is the creative side of the brain. I used to have a book titled Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, and it was supposed to help you train the more creative side to “see” more by having you draw things upside down. Gah. Whatever. It works for a lot of people.

My point is, if you are right-handed, couldn’t you look at the spinning girl and assume that she was leaning to the right and lifting her right limbs, thus see her as going clockwise? If so, then wouldn’t that contradict the PerthNow article, which says you are right-brained?

Or perhaps, if you are right-handed, you actually would stand on your right leg rather than your left, so your left limbs would be lifted, and you’d see her going counter-clockwise, which confirms the PerthNow article.

But really … who can say?

Or did they just come up with their theory simply because most of the people they tested saw the girl going counter-clockwise, and since most people in general are right-handed, they figured there was a correlation there?

If so, I find that so arbitrary. Where’s the proof?!

I say … however you see the dancer is how you see it, but it doesn’t necessarily determine who you are or how you think. You can change your perception, but it’s up to you. Open up your mind and see it from the other side. Just lift the other arm and leg.

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