The dancing girl who's got the world in a spin

Do you see the woman spinning clockwise or anti-clockwise?

An animated dancing girl who has been doing the internet rounds for the past month has got people from all over the world in a twist.

Is she turning clockwise or anti-clockwise? The answer, apparently, will tell you whether you are left- or right-brained.

People who see the woman spinning clockwise are allegedly right brained, while those who see her turning anti-clockwise are left-brained.

Which is all well and good, but many people who have taken the test claim they can alter the woman's spin by focussing on different parts of her anatomy.

After running the animation on its website for several weeks, Australian news site PerthNow was inundated with comments from people who had tried to manipulate the woman's movements with varying degrees of success.

Associate Prof Craig Speelman, head of the school of psychology at Edith Cowan University, told PerthNow the test had nothing to do with left-right brain use.

He said the animation was more likely to be an optical illusion or reflect an individual bias, similar to that which makes some people right-handed and others left-handed.

"This idea that you are left-brain or right-brain is complete bunkum," he told the news website.

"To say someone who thinks with their right-brain will be creative is hogwash. There is simply no evidence for it."

Despite this, many are convinced the dancing woman can tell us something about how our brains work.

View the video below to see which category you fall into.

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
(anti-clockwise) (clockwise)
uses logic uses feeling
detail oriented "big picture" oriented
facts rule imagination rules
words and language symbols and images
present and past present and future
math and science philosophy & religion
can comprehend can "get it" (ie. meaning)
knowing believes
acknowledges appreciates
order/pattern perception spatial perception
knows object name knows object function
reality based fantasy based
forms strategies presents possibilities
practical impetuous
safe risk taking

- NZ HERALD STAFF