Re: Is your right brain active?

On 8 May 2009, at 17:06, Jon Kern wrote:

> Thanks Larry/(Adrian),
>
> You are entitled to your bean raining/usual rants -- as long as you  
> took
> the test <g>.

More than a minute, under five. Probably not a fair time coz I knew it  
would either be an actual image - or a pattern in the beans - so I was  
looking for it in a particular way :-)

[snip]
> Because, whether it is based on "brain facts" or not, it is still  
> fun to
> hear my IT friends get tripped up on the test, yet their spouses or  
> kids
> see it immediately. And whether it is based on LEFT/RIGHT or merely  
> the
> ability for your brain to process the image faster or slower, I find  
> it
> interesting anecdotal evidence.
[snip]

Also possibly dangerous anecdotal data :-) Maybe it's not a creative  
distinction. Maybe there's no distinction at all (your sample size is  
small). Maybe it's a distinction of folk who were looking for a  
"trick" in the image - rather than a literal picture. Maybe it's the  
environment the question is framed in. Maybe it's rested vs tired  
rather than technical vs creative Maybe...

The real problem I've found with the left/right thing is that it  
becomes a label. You can't do X coz you're a left brain type. You  
can't do Y coz you're a right brain type. Etc. This is, in my  
experience, a deeply harmful outlook for people. Especially when the  
labels are mythical :-)

Even if you take the original research by Fink and Marshall at face  
value they were not saying anything about personality types - but  
instead were talking about where different kinds of mental processes  
happened. The idea of left/right brain dominance is just pop-
psychology - and is about as useful as astrology.

.... erm... ranting aren't I.... sorry!

If you want a really dramatic example of how silly the left/right  
brain thing is - have a google around hemispherectomy - scary... but  
fascinating stuff :-)

Cheers,

Adrian