Brain Switch

[Shadow]

In psychology today, the teacher showed us a news clip about how our brain works. Here's a link, with the test on it, and an explanation. Because I'm feeling generous, i'll give an explanation as well. To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

A neuroscientist said that instead of the two hemispheres working constantly in unison, the left and right parts get turns in having control. They can demonstrate this in humans by using Bonneh's Illusion. Basically, it's three stationary yellow dots against a moving blue dot background. You concentrate on a yellow dot and the other yellow dots usually dissapear, and reappear. When the right side of your brain is in control, you see all the details, like the yellow dots. But when the left side is in control, your brain starts to focus on the background. If you time this, you can get a reading of how often your brain switches. They say that people like mathematicians will often have a low switch rate, while people like dancers have high switch rates. Anyway, take the test and tell of your results.

By the way, I got a low switch rate.

[Laurel]

that's interesting . . . . i got a high switch rate

[Firelie]

What does it mean if the other yellow dots never disappear? I must be doing it wrong or something...

[pavman]

What does it mean if the other yellow dots never disappear? I must be doing it wrong or something...

I agree. I tried it twice. Even wrote a short perl program to time myself. The yellow dots never disappeared.

So either I'm a freak of nature, or this thing doesn't work...

[OneBadMother]

If the yellow dots don't disappear, I gather that also mean you have a low/nonexistent switch rate, except it's the right side of your brain that's really dominant. Either that or you're doing it wrong. :P Anyways, I've got a high switch rate.

[integratedvelocity]

It switched ten times for me, sometimes all three dots at once. It makes sense in a way, since I have played violin and piano for twelve years each, two-thirds of my life. Also, I just got back from orchestra rehearsal, so maybe that influenced it. Just a random conjecture...

[Solaris]

High switch rate.

It took me a few tries to get the hang of it. My eye wanted to keep following the moving dots....which negates the effect. I think it's a bit flawed as it snaps back each time you blink. So if you blink a lot, you could produce a false reading.

[yam]

low switch rate...

[Shadow]

What does it mean if the other yellow dots never disappear? I must be doing it wrong or something...

Maybe the image isn't big enough, i saw it on a video the first time and it seemed to work better. There's on on youtube, the image is a bit blurrier but you can make it fullscreen.

[Dream Weaver]

Mine was balanced. But only one of the dots seemed to disappear. I usually saw the other one out of the corner of my eye.

[Antares]

I have a low switch rate, with three switches. Guess I'm a 'mathematician'?

[elsdfr]

I stopped at 7 changes in 20 seconds because it was getting worse, quickly. I guess it makes sense because any decent Maths tends to make me feel ill :p

[Vardigon]

High switch rate, I believe. But I like math :/. The two dots never reappeared fully, they were ghosted each time they reappeared, but they did so often.

[Szarra]

So what does it mean if you can't get your eyes to stay focused on one spot long enough to take the test? Especially with all those interesting little dots zipping around in the background. :cheesy:

This reminds me of the illusion pictures where you have to "unfocus" your eyes to see it among the squiggles. I have a hard time with those too.

[suzyk]

Both the upper dots disappear for me. I have a high switch rate, like a dancer. Scary.

[robotix]

Low switch rate

[Caramel]

Balanced switch rate.

This test gave me a major headache. =(

[Lagawrd]

Low switch rate, that is assuming that the dots reappear partially. I do not understand what mathematics has to do with this though.

[Atrophy]

The dots don't disappear, and the image constantly goes from flat to concave... it flows inward and outward.

Also, my eyes gravitate towards the center of the dots. Like the middle of the triangle.

[gdavid]

The yellow dots won't disappear, it doesn't matter how long I look at the picture. Any idea, why?

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[XFire35]

So what does it mean if you can't get your eyes to stay focused on one spot long enough to take the test? Especially with all those interesting little dots zipping around in the background. :cheesy:

This reminds me of the illusion pictures where you have to "unfocus" your eyes to see it among the squiggles. I have a hard time with those too.

The picture makes me eyes go blurry too. They don't really disappear either, they go slightly transparent, but that's it.

[VF1J]

Not sure what to make of it really. It varies alot for me.

[Hiro]

If I try to make them reappear and disappear I get high. Without trying I get low.

[Hjordis]

The picture makes me eyes go blurry too. They don't really disappear either, they go slightly transparent, but that's it.
Yeah, I keep refocusing just as they're about to disappear. When I tried really hard not to do that and just focused on the one dot they disappeared, reappeared, and then started floating around the screen. Now I'm dizzy. I don't think I was doing it right.

[NoGrayArea01]

It switched seven times, so that's a slightly high switch rate.

[Bamboo]

I got an average 6 switches.

By the way I used
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. and set the countdown for 30 seconds, I think that makes the time aspect less distracting.

This might sound strange but try to "feel" the dot with your body (not just your eyes) if you can't make it work. This is a good example of something that is seemingly irrational but works well due to the nature of how information is processed subjectively vs. behind the scenes.

Trying to switch fast as possible I got 9 or 10. One or two was a "fade" rather than a full black out.

[drake2]

Interesting test. I got an almost continual blinking of two dots. Very rapid. I think my logical mind was taking over every time the dots dissappeared and saying "that's not logical, those dots are there"
A bit disorientating after a few minutes.

[JackCY]

first try, 4 times, but partially disappeared
second try, 2 times? If I wouldn't have tired eyes and concentrate maybe once or 0 in 30s.
It's possible to switch faster and slower for me. But generally slow switch rate when I'm calm.

[Akatosh Sam]

The dots never fully disappeared, they merely became dimmer.

[sirius]

They never disappeared for me.

[merullo23]

Same thing happened to me, I can't seem to get them to go away even by focusing on just one blinking rapidly

[John01]

Interesting image. While staring at one yellow dot, the other two dots disappeared and reappeared 12 times in 60 seconds. Most of the time they would faintly reappear. I few times the completely reappeared.

It reminded me of watching trout in a slow river run rising for insects.

[Xyz]

For me the yellow dots disappeared and never came back :\
Though I am very left dominant..

[masterpeach]

What does it mean if the other yellow dots never disappear? I must be doing it wrong or something...

Same here. They even started to jump around. Does being short-sightet have an effect on that? Or VERY right-brain dominant?

Oh, when I close my eyes, they're gone, haha :)

[Rosette]

Don't disappear at all.

[SomeINTJGuy]

LOL. I was able to get a low and a high switch rate by somehow changing my mental or visual perception of it or something. This is basically a test of how easily you are able to see optical illusions imo.

[Mindfreak]

Low switch rate. First time I've ever seen anything written about this, and it's something I've always done, even in childhood, and it lead me to believe something was seriously wrong with me.

[instruMENTAL]

High switch rate.

[Grave]

Low switch rate

[hamlet9]

Wow, this bothered my eyes. I always saw at least one of the dots, but the other two would disappear. It switched every four seconds or so, and I had to stop looking after a minute.

[LOL WUT]

Oops, wrong thread

---------- Post added 01-09-2012 at 05:42 PM ----------

It switched for me about once every 5 seconds. the main problem I had with it was every once in a while i'd slightly twitch my eye and the dots would suddenly reappear