31 January 2008

What do you see?

What you see in these images is determined by whether you are left or right handed.




Because the brains of left- and right-handers are organised are organised differently, left-handers see and think differently and can get some very different results from various "brain tests". Left -handers tend to do well on tests that involve creative thinking or unraveling complex images and manipulating 3D images.

In the first image a right-hander may just see a hodgepodge of disconnected shapes, but a left-hander will tend to make sense of the shapes. Left-handers are more likely to see the dalmatian shiffing the ground.

The second image is a Kanizsas triangle. If you can see the white triangle - the one with its apex pointing up - it's because your left-handed brain has created that triangle to unify what is otherwise simply a collection of angles and PacMan shapes. There is, in fact, no white triangle there.

Taken from a post for International Left Handers Day 2007

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have a degree of ambidexterity. The story is that I was left handed but was persuaded out of it - I write right. I see both images as a left-hander.

jams o donnell said...

That was so common wasn't it. That happened to left handers in my childhood. I dicovered the use of my left hand when I boke my right arm at the age of 7. I write with both hands but I do most other things with my left.

shiera (bisdakbabbles) said...

very interesting. I still see the images as a left-hander. I used to be a left-hander but my father always reprimanded me when I tried to use my left hand... so I was forced to use my right hand. ^-^

Sean Jeating said...

Amazing. As far as I know I am a 'born' right-hander, and I'd see what I should not. :)

Did you ever tried braindancing? If not I could send you the url via email.

jams o donnell said...

Despite whiting right handed ou are still a left hander under it all!


There you go Sean. It's not absolutely had and fast, rather a tendency. Braindancing. Is that the image that spins dependent on whether you are left or right brained?

Anonymous said...

Interesting. I am right-handed but saw the triangle totally as you describe a left hander, and I didn't see a dalmation but a strange creature with a long neck. Would this be because my father was really a left hander who had it beaten out of him and therefore there is some genetic remnant in me?

I tend to use my Oyster card in the underground barriers as a left hander. Not clever!

jams o donnell said...

Probably so Gert... My dad is ambidextrous, my sis a true leftie while I learned my leftiness at a young age.

I do that with my ticket too. I wonder how many fare dodgers have had a free ride as a result!

Anonymous said...

The first image is just a random series of blobs to me. But in the second image, the white triangle leaps out at me - and I'm right-handed. When my sister was in school, some 50 years ago or so, the teachers tried to force her to write with her right hand, but my mother intervened, as she thought it was a bad idea to try to force a left-handed kid into being right-handed. Why people even got the idea to force everyone to be right-handed, I really don't know.

jams o donnell said...

There have been a lot of interesting results. Thanks everyone for commenting.

Siani, I knew of people being forced to write with their right hand even in the 70s. Utterly disgraceful in my view. I'm glad your mum stuck up for your sis

James Higham said...

I saw a dead body in the first one.

jams o donnell said...

Err James, I'm not sure what that signifies!

Autumn said...

That is so very interesting. I am right handed, I didn't see much of anything in the first picture but I immediately made out the white triangle in the second. My five year old is some what ambidextrous. He favored his left as a toddler and we just let him do his thing. He will color with his right hand and then write with his left. He saw the Dalmatian right away, I was quite surprised. He also saw the white triangle right off. Thanks for this, it was fun.

jmb said...

I'm sort of ambidextrous, doing some things with left only but most with right. I don't think I was changed as a child but I gave birth to son who is so left handed it's not funny. At 11 he had an accident on his left hand and could hardly feed himself.

I saw a horse head on the ground (how weird is that?) in one but the white triangle is very dominant in two for me. I'm glad I'm not the only confused one here.

jams o donnell said...

Hi Auturmn. It's very interesting to hear what people see in these images. It looks like the triangle is a dud after all!

I can imagine what trouble your boy
was in jmb as a left hander with a broken left hand. Thanks for letting me know whjat you see too

Roland Dodds said...

Picture 1: Sasquatch.

Picture 2: Star of David.

Steve Bates said...

I see both images in what you describe as the left-handed fashion.

I'm ambidextrous, but one hand often dominates one or another activity: e.g., I write right-handed, but I use the mouse left-handed at my own computer (if I'm at another, I use the mouse on whichever side I find it). When I play woodwind instruments, my left hand feels distinctly dominant, and in the old days when I used to teach music lessons, I frequently transposed the phrases "left hand" and "right hand" when talking to a student. The composer C.P.E. Bach wrote, in his famous treatise on keyboard playing, that it was a great advantage for a keyboard player to be left-handed, but he never satisfactorily explained why.

I am grateful for these more open-minded times. Even here in Texas, I can come right out and admit that I'm ambi. :)

jams o donnell said...

Sasquatch Roland???

I never realised being left handed conferred an advantage to piano players. Not that it would help someone like me who has no musical talent whatsoever!

Anonymous said...

I see random shapes in the first and the white triangle in the second, and I'm right handed. It's a bit odd that a few of us have done that isn't it?

jams o donnell said...

It really looks like the triangle is a dud but your seeing random shapes in the first image does make it an effective test so to speak

Liz Hinds said...

There is a white triangle there! Don't fib.

I am right-handed but see a dalmatian.

jams o donnell said...

The triangle is definitely a dud by looks of it. It's really interesting to hear what everyone sees. Thanks for commenting Liz!