Which way does she turn?

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » 2007-10-22 01:01am

Follow this link:
+http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/ ... 61,00.html

I'm curious as to your responses - call it a social experiment of sorts.

I've tried everything I can think of, and I can only perceive her turning clockwise. I'll try again tomorrow, when I'm more awake.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2007-10-22 01:06am

I don't see how she can be turning anything but clockwise.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2007-10-22 01:07am

Same: clockwise.

Erik von Nein · Post by **Erik von Nein** » 2007-10-22 01:10am

I don't see how anyone could see it as moving anything other than clockwise. She's moving backwards, yeah, but still clockwise.

Am I just insane?

Noble Ire · Post by **Noble Ire** » 2007-10-22 01:17am

I perceive her as moving counterclockwise, actually. There are momently "flashes" of reverse movement, but the general trend is obvious.

Edit: Scratch that; concentrating hard enough, I can see her moving either way. I'm not sure exactly how the movement changes, but it does seem to.

bilateralrope · Post by **bilateralrope** » 2007-10-22 01:21am

Clockwise from above or below her ?

From above she is turning clockwise for me. And unless someone explains why, using this as a left/right brain test seems bullshit.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2007-10-22 01:31am

How the hell could she NOT be moving clockwise?

Feil · Post by **Feil** » 2007-10-22 01:35am

She moves both ways. Close one eye and strobe your vision in the other. The moment you perceive movement in the anticlockwise direction, open both eyes and allow her to spin anticlockwise. If you want to change back, repeat the process.

Alerik the Fortunate · Post by **Alerik the Fortunate** » 2007-10-22 01:47am

Momentary changes in attention cause her to reverse direction for a considerable time until another shift reverses it again. I can't yet consciously choose which I perceive; at any time the motion seems inevitable and conclusive even though I had perceived it differently only moments ago.

Spin Echo · Post by **Spin Echo** » 2007-10-22 01:53am

Both ways. You just have to think of what appears to be her front becoming her back and vice versa and you can make her rotate the other way.

Interestingly enough, a guy in our lab had some data he had rotating a few days ago that had a similar effect. He and I could see it rotating either way we chose, but the other people in lab would only see it rotating one way or another.

Alerik the Fortunate · Post by **Alerik the Fortunate** » 2007-10-22 01:53am

Correction: now if I blink, I can choose at will what direction she is turning by choosing to perceive whether the extended foot is in front of or behind the vertically oriented leg. I still have to blink to blot out the old mental construct though. Weird.

Medic · Post by **Medic** » 2007-10-22 02:31am

Alerik the Fortunate wrote:Correction: now if I blink, I can choose at will what direction she is turning by choosing to perceive whether the extended foot is in front of or behind the vertically oriented leg. I still have to blink to blot out the old mental construct though. Weird.

I got to that point after about ... 7 minutes. If you blink in tempo with the picture it doesn't seem to do any good cause that's constant and you can anticipate it. But after blinking randomly to just take the motion out of my vision and THEN blinking predictably, I could change the direction at will. She'd spin one direction 180* then go right on back the same way the another 180*, never completing a full rotation. Trippy.

(mostly though it seems clockwise for me)

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » 2007-10-22 02:51am

Just for the record, though I don't often reply to the threads I start, I always enjoy reading the responses of others. In this case, seeing others' responses to this is intriguing.

Medic · Post by **Medic** » 2007-10-22 03:06am

If you don't naturally perceive it going clockwise, I can't help you to see the opposite but just focus on the reflection of the toe. With a field-of-vision that has one reflection / shadow go in and out of vision, it only makes sense for that reflection to mean it's the leg that is farther away, as if it was closer it'd be out of the field-of-vision. And if that reflection is farther away it's going counter-clockwise. After I get this in my head, I can look away or blink and it might be going clockwise again (though I'm not guaranteed of this) but I can damn near "make it go" counterclockwise by wrapping my perspective around the reflection of that foot.

By switching my focus on that fleeting reflection and then around her hips / arms (and a well-timed blink) the movement can go either way, almost at will.

DesertFly · Post by **DesertFly** » 2007-10-22 03:18am

I can get her to switch by concentrating on the outstretched leg right before it passes the body either way.

DesertFly · Post by **DesertFly** » 2007-10-22 03:19am

EDIT--actually, it's when the leg is outstretched to the left or right that I find it easiest to change.

Zablorg · Post by **Zablorg** » 2007-10-22 03:48am

You know, the darndest thing happened, I saw her going clockwise, then looked at the text, and when I looked back again she was going counterclockwise...

Ariphaos · Post by **Ariphaos** » 2007-10-22 03:59am

I have a frame by frame breakdown of this I can upload if someone wants.

It's a lot easier to see how she can be facing either way when you look at each frame.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2007-10-22 04:36am

Xeriar wrote:I have a frame by frame breakdown of this I can upload if someone wants.

It's a lot easier to see how she can be facing either way when you look at each frame.

Sure. It's just not working for me otherwise...

Post by **Edi** » 2007-10-22 04:54am

I managed to see it both ways. The way she spins tends to vary with my state of mind more than anything else.As soon as I started analyzing it, counterclockwise. When I originally looked at it, it was clockwise, and that was after having thought of some non-analytical stuff first.

Sir Sirius · Post by **Sir Sirius** » 2007-10-22 05:31am

At first I saw her going anti-clockwise, but I soon learned to switch the direction at will. So I'm going to say either.

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2007-10-22 05:45am

Clockwise. Not unexpected, considering the explanation

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2007-10-22 06:38am

Counterclockwise. I can switch by looking at the feet.

And what's w/ the unnecessary link breaking? And why hasn't Ein come in and decryed that already?

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2007-10-22 06:42am

Clockwise, but after 20-30 seconds of looking at her feet, then her, then her feet I was eventually able to make the switch.
But naturally, clockwise.

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2007-10-22 06:42am

I have a dominant right eye, but she invariably goes clockwise. This is confusing.

Then I get distracted a bit and...my head hurts. Fuck, but the human brain is screwed up. It needs some serious rewiring

You know, this is interesting. My girlfriend and I can sometimes look or listen to the exact same thing, and perceive it in two radically different ways. Also, while I'm reasonably good at problem-solving, I often have to concentrate pretty hard before I can even begin to think about something clearly enough. I wonder if it's due to my character and upbringing, or the fact that my left brain tries to dominate all the time, or something.

It's really stunning when you stop and think how much of our perception of the world is affected by the biological make-up of our brain ; And how opressively inescapable this fact is.