Interesting IQ Test by Yale University | Hacker News Reader

Interesting IQ Test by Yale University

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20 pointsdzlobin33 comments

The whole IQ thing is BS. After about a minute of practice I can get it to switch at will. You'll have to trust me when I tell you that I'm not even close to being a genius.

It's been a long time since I took a psychology class, but I'm pretty sure that 14% of the population doesn't have an IQ of over 160. That seems high even for Lake Wobegon...

The claim is 14% can see her go either way. But fewer than 1/10,000 can voluntarily change the perceived direction at will, when they want, without looking away.

Personally I find the first easy. The second, not so much.

That said, I don't think that this is particularly well correlated with regular IQ tests. And I don't think there is particularly good evidence that there really is something we should be calling IQ. See http://bentilly.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-is-intelligence.ht... for more on that.

It says that to have an IQ above 160 you need to be able to see it turn both ways without shifting your gaze.

And you have to be able to do it at will.

I can switch at will. But it took about 30 seconds of initial practice, plus an insight. The insight is that you can't just see her change turn direction - you have to also simultaneously see her instantly switch which way she is facing.

I found that when her legs crossed you have an opportunity to get her to switch, but I can't get it every single time. I wonder what the exact parameters of the test were...

I can do it at will, waay below 160

I'm a little curious, when you say at will, do you mean at certain points of the perceived rotations, or literally at ANY point of the perceived rotation?

Obvious question: which studies and where are the citations?

This has got to be BS:

I looked at it and went "uhh, I can make it do both?", then read the text.

There is absolutely no possible way that I am over 160 IQ and, if I am, dear god I am wasting it.

Edit: in fact, it's kindof fun to sit there and watch the hands dance back and forth, it looks much more like she's dancing and less like she's spinning if you make her switch directions when the hand is either at the far left or far right. Neat.

To get her to switch directions I have to focus really hard on her foot, the one on the ground. If I block out everything else mentally I can make it switch directions, but it is very hard.

I bet with practice anyone can get to the point where they can see her turn either way with more ease.

That worked for me as well.

What I wonder is, is there any cognitive effect to being in "right-brain mode" or "left-brain mode"? Right now I've flipped myself into seeing her going counter-clockwise all the time (my dominant mode is clockwise), but I don't feel any different.

Here's a tip: cover one half of the image with your hand, including all of her body, so you just see the leg come around. Now uncover the image. Now do the same thing with the other half (or two-thirds, whatever).

If you do this a few times, you'll likely be able to see it go both ways. Not at will, but you can get into a mode where you are seeing her rocking back and forth rather than constantly spinning the same direction. The key is that your brain makes a snap decision about which side of her hip the leg is on, and then it's motion processing mechanism stitches all future images to match that initial impression. You can teach yourself to make her switch back and forth by refocusing on her hips.

It worked for me anyway.

It seems that no one has claimed not to be able to do this so I will. It's driving me mad. I spent at least 5 minutes on it. I cannot see how she could possibly appear to be moving counter-clockwise.

I came across this animation years ago and most people I shared it with could only perceive one direction of motion - including folk I'd put money on having a higher IQ than myself (I don't know my IQ, though).

I suppose another variable is how long you get to look at it - I seem to remember being similarly frustrated at first.

Its probably going to work different for everyone. I see some saying they concentrate on the feet. I just look at the torso and the arm. To switch directions at will I just have to imagine the arm going behind or in front of the body. Its not instant, it takes a revolution or two.

I found that for me I can easily change the direction depending on which foot I focus on in my peripheral vision. I don't know if that'll help. The initial shift from clockwise to counter-clockwise gave me a headache/weird feeling inside my head.

To make the switch, visualize what the rotation you will see if you are standing above her looking directly down at her or from below her looking directly up at her.

Using your hands to block part of the image -- try the top, bottom, or top and bottom (revealing only the middle) may help.

I actually found the switch to be most apparent when focusing on the left/right sides of the figure. The left rotates counter-clockwise, while the right rotates clockwise.

Can someone explain how this works (I mean how the lady can look like she is rotating in either direction). If I focus really hard on her foot I can make her change direction, but I can't figure out the illusion they are using.

The illusion is created because the figure is rendered side-on with no perspective. Because there's no indication as to which direction is correct, your brain just picks a direction and that's how you perceive her moving. Once your brain becomes fixated on one direction, it's hard to change your interpretation.

(Apparently there's some sort of correlation between hemisphere dominance and the preferred direction, and between the ability to change direction and IQ score. I'm sceptical on both counts.)

I see it both ways after 4 minutes. But I didn't get it initially. Can this be practiced? Just focus anywhere on her body (butt or straight foot), after 10 to 40 seconds, it just automatically switches.

Anecdotally it seems like it can be pretty easily trained. It took me a few minutes to get it to switch at all but from there it was pretty easy to go from having to stare at the foot to having to look away to having a specific time in the rotation to be able to alternate (almost) at will.

Of course if it was an animation of the shadow of a turning teapot I probably wouldn't have bothered so there's that.

Wow. Now I can see it turning both left and right at the same time. It's pretty weird.

With a little practice I can make her turn both ways, but I find it's much easier to move her counter->clockwise than the other way around. I saw her counter by default.

When I read this article, I thought, I bet the comments will have a bunch of people saying, I can see it both ways with the "but I'm way below 160" added for humility.

Almost as if I had peaked ahead of time, that is exactly what I found.

Just a funny observation as I see it all the time. When there's an article about an especially bright young kid, you get a ton of "i was doing calculus at 5 years old" posts.

Putting aside the claims about IQ, did anybody else have the picture start acting really funny as you shifted between viewing it clockwise versus counterclockwise?

I had something that looked like a conflict with the figure trying to go both ways at the same time and jumping between the two.

I found it a fun little exercise.

So, does this actually correlate with IQ in any way (not that IQ is meaningful)? Or is it simply that 14% of the population can make the switch happen, and 14% have an IQ of 160, and the author is making unfounded assumption that making the switch is a function of intelligence.

We opened several of the animations up on two monitors and were able to get one monitor set going one way and the other monitor set going the other way, it was pretty cool looking.

I had her body spinning clockwise and her foot spinning counter clockwise.

Hmmm.. I have to blink a few times to get her to switch directions.

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