Left/Right brain perception

[Wibbles]

2 hours ago, craigb said:

Um, no. 

I am aware of the concept of hemispheric dominance.

But the idea of "Are you an accountant? Then you must be left-brained. Are you an artist? Then you must be right-brained " (as it is used in this thread), is nonsense.

 

Edited May 25, 2019 by Wibbles

[craigb]

13 minutes ago, Wibbles said:

I am aware of the concept of hemispheric dominance.

But the idea of "Are you an accountant? Then you must be left-brained. Are you an artist? Then you must be right-brained " (as it is used in this thread), is nonsense.

 

Or "You're a politician?  You must not have a brain." 😆

Edited May 25, 2019 by craigb

[Kev]

3 hours ago, craigb said:

Um, no.  It might be shite in this specific instance (and the general stuff that most people know about), but there are some serious differences in the brain halves (just ask someone who's done PhD work in this area - oh wait, that would include ME!).  My guess is that this specific instance has FAR more to do with how people process color...

...Which direction is the girl spinning?  Clockwise?  Counter-clockwise?  Do you see her stop and go back the other way?  Well, the reality is that she isn't spinning, but your brain will show you she's spinning in one direction or the other.  To prove there's some truth to the left brain/right brain try watching the girl while doing math in your head then continue watching and start thinking about creating a tune.  I'm able to get her to stop and go in whichever direction I want...

Thanks for sharing your expertise.

My perception of the colours in the shoe picture changed back and forth according to whatever I had just been engaged in. On the one hand it was technical stuff and on the other it was visual or musical. Surely this is an example of right-left brain phenomena, just like the spinning girl example. Or, if it is something different, then what is it and how is it different?

[Kev]

9 hours ago, Wibbles said:

The left brain/right brain idea is a load of bollocks.

Just google "left brain/right brain myth".

Pretty much every widely accepted idea has its critics and detractors. Try googling anything and include the word "myth".

[craigb]

2 minutes ago, Kev said:

Pretty much every widely accepted idea has its critics and detractors. Try googling anything and include the word "myth".

Ok, googling "anything myth" 😆

[craigb]

11 minutes ago, Kev said:

Thanks for sharing your expertise.

My perception of the colours in the shoe picture changed back and forth according to whatever I had just been engaged in. On the one hand it was technical stuff and on the other it was visual or musical. Surely this is an example of right-left brain phenomena, just like the spinning girl example. Or, if it is something different, then what is it and how is it different?

It's an aspect of the phenomena, but (especially now) you're have also been subjected to a decent amount of suggestion and expectation.  One reason many things are tested using animals is that it excludes having the results "colored" (pun in-ten-did) by suggestion, expectation or the placebo effect.

In this case, as I alluded to above, how a person perceives color comes into play.  My guess is probably more than any brain hemispheric phenomena.  One of the primary difficulties in doing any form of brain research is trying to isolate an area to learn about it.  The brain is a highly synergistic entity where the whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts.

I've heard of similar "myth busting" when people talk about brain waves.  Most have heard of the basics like Delta, Theta, Alpha and Beta (from slowest to fastest or about 0.5 Hz to 38 Hz), but newer research is also finding faster waves (called Gamma up to 42 Hz, though other sources now call frequencies as high as 100 Hz Gamma too).  I have been involved with brain wave research and entrainment since the 80's including working with a few of the pioneering scientists, and I can tell you that they are definitely still learning a lot of new things!  One such area has to do with the fact that different areas of the brain can exhibit different brain frequencies at the same time.  Unfortunately, most EEG machines (including the one I used to have) all tend to capture the dominate frequencies using leads attached to the scalp with conductive gel.  Because these devices only listen from the outside (and outside the skull too), they have an inherent deficiency in defining the spatial, 3D locations that the frequencies are originating from.  Newer devices are far better though.

When you consider that the cones in your eyes simply translate the wavelength reflected off an object (rods help primarily in low-light situations) and, ironically, the image comes in upside-down, the brain has to then make sense of the input and flip the image over in your head.  Since adding the greenish filter to the OP's image adds additional information to the original image that wasn't present, it requires the brain to perform some additional calculations and interpretations.  This then leads to yet another rabbit hole: The fact that your subconscious mind filters out the vast majority of the data gathered by the senses, how it filters things out can vary wildly from person to person.  For this area, instead of shoes, I prefer examples like the image below where the two squares (identified by the arrows) are actually the same color.  You can prove this by importing the image into PhotoShop and "sampling" each square.

Another example is this Rubik's Cube.  The middle squares on the top and front face are also the same color.

[Kev]

5 hours ago, craigb said:

It's an aspect of the phenomena, but (especially now) you're have also been subjected to a decent amount of suggestion and expectation.  One reason many things are tested using animals is that it excludes having the results "colored" (pun in-ten-did) by suggestion, expectation or the placebo effect.

 

Sure. Expectation can and does influence perception. But I was struck by the way that the people I know all became polarized into two groups in a way that seemed to be consistent with the left-right thing.

The image of the shoe has been posted on several sites and only a small minority of respondents have said that they see pink. I was curious to know whether posting it on a musicians' forum would yield a different result. That was my reason for posting it here.

[craigb]

Keep postin'!  I find these topics fascinating.

(And I mostly see a pinkish/grey shoe that has some splotches near the toes, along with laces and accents in mint condition. 🙂)

[mdiemer]

On 5/25/2019 at 9:48 AM, Wibbles said:

The left brain/right brain idea is a load of bollocks.

Just google "left brain/right brain myth".

The brain is so poorly understood, I don't think a definitive statement can be made. There is no doubt that most people are right handed, but about 10% are left handed. This obviously has to do with brain organization. Which means there is some truth to the claim. Additionally, people are either right or left eyed as well. Usually it goes with the dominant hand. There is an easy way to test this:

Hold your index finger (either one) about a foot from your nose. Now open one eye at a time, alternating the two. Your finger will appear to move as you do this. Whichever way it moves, that is your dominant eye. If you're right handed, you're probably right eyed as well. And so on for left handed people.

 

Edited May 28, 2019 by mdiemer

[bayoubill]

Right gray shoe with bluegreen laces

[InstrEd]

23 hours ago, bayoubill said:

Right gray shoe with bluegreen laces

Funny I look at the image and I hear BlueGrass music 😆