Quiz: Are you right or left brain?
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The brain is not divided equally. The left side is larger and that is why so many people are right handed.
However, being right handed does not mean that you are left-brained.
Learning Styles Are Universal
Patty Emerson, formerly of Hawarden, IA, is known for her studies in brain research. Emerson states that a 1996 study of seven countries showed that learning styles are alike on all continents. In fact, the proportion of left brain learners to right brain learners are not significantly different in any country. What is different is what each society honors.
Eastern and Western Hemispheres
Western society honors left brains, especially men. We hold them in high regard because they follow directions, do well on tests, sit still in school, seem to be organized, tend to be good business people, and are quite serious in nature. Right brains are honored in eastern society where creativity, empathy and spirituality are seen as important. While these traits are very well respected in eastern societies, it is very unfortunate to be a right-brained male in western society.
How Do Brains Develop?
Our brains are smooth when we are born. Brains begin to develop wrinkles when experiences occur. Repetition makes deeper wrinkles. The deeper the wrinkle, the more likely we are to remember things. That is why students that cram for a test at the last minute are not likely to remember the data on the test the following day. The wrinkle was not deep.This is also why people who learned another language as a child revert to the initial language when senile. The wrinkle was deep.
How Do We Become Left or Right?
Emerson states that all theories believe you are born either left or right brained. This will not change. The event is three fold:
- Born with it
- Environmental
- Choices made
The degree to which you are left or right brained, depends on the combination of these three, but the results are still left or right brained.
http://educationalissues.suite101.com/article.cfm/rightleft_brain_background#ixzz0BckkC8T4
Left Brain
The left brain is associated with verbal, logical, and analytical thinking. It excels in naming and categorizing things, symbolic abstraction, speech, reading, writing, arithmetic. The left brain is very linear: it places things in sequential order -- first things first and then second things second, etc. If you reflect back upon our own educational training, we have been traditionally taught to master the 3 R's: reading, writing and arithmetic -- the domain and strength of the left brain.
Right Brain
The right brain, on the other hand, functions in a non-verbal manner and excels in visual, spatial, perceptual, and intuitive information. The right brain processes information differently than the left brain. For the right brain, processing happens very quickly and the style of processing is nonlinear and nonsequential. The right brain looks at the whole picture and quickly seeks to determine the spatial relationships of all the parts as they relate to the whole. This component of the brain is not concerned with things falling into patterns because of p rescribed rules. On the contrary, the right brain seems to flourish dealing with complexity, ambiguity and paradox. At times, right brain thinking is difficult to put into words because of its complexity, its ability to process information quickly and its non-verbal nature. The right brain has been associated with the realm of creativity.
LEFT BRAIN FUNCTION uses logic
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RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTION uses feeling
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Affects on our Personality
Our personality can be thought of as a result of the degree to which these left and right brains interact, or, in some cases, do not interact. It is a simplification to identify "left brain" types who are very analytical and orderly. We likewise certainly know of the artistic, unpredictability and creativity of "right brain" types. But each of us draws upon specific sides of our brain for a variety of daily functions, depending on such things as our age, education and life experiences. The choices of which brain is in control of which situations is what forges our personalities and determines our character.
Experiments show that most children rank highly creative (right brain) before entering school. Because our educational systems place a higher value on left brain skills such as mathematics, logic and language than it does on drawing or using our imagination, only ten percent of these same children will rank highly creative by age 7. By the time we are adults, high creativity remains in only 2 percent of the population.
More test: Is the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?
If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa. Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22535838-5012895,00.html
