Looking to the right…
June 16th, 2008 | by mj |I noticed a few years ago that when I’m trying to remember a name or number or URL, I definitely have a minds eye picture of a rolodex which fits in with the few seconds it takes for the number or whatever to turn up.
I also just noticed that not only do I turn my eyes to the right, but I incline my head to the right as well. That’s not surprising. there’s the whole left-brain versus right-brain thing to consider.
| Left Brain | Right Brain |
| Logical | Random |
| Sequential | Intuitive |
| Rational | Holistic |
| Analytical | Synthesizing |
| Objective | Subjective |
| Looks at parts | Looks at wholes |
Hang on. That doesn’t make sense. I think my brain might be broken. Surely remembering numbers is more ‘logical’ than ‘random’? I hope it’s not serious.
I am a little more concerned about the apparent latency. It’s almost like my internal command prompt is blocked on
Weird….
5 Responses to “Looking to the right…”
By Aidan on Jun 16, 2008 | Reply
Don’t forget, your left-brain controls your right hand side of the body. The world makes sense again!
By mj on Jun 16, 2008 | Reply
No…I’m even more confused by that
By Eamon on Jun 17, 2008 | Reply
Of course, remembering numbers might be looked on as ‘looking at the whole’, whatever that means
The way I remember things has been changing, probably as a consequesnce of my 5-years teaching in Japan. I now seem to use a mix of visual, aural, and kinesthetic memories in memory tasks.
Wierd stuff I’ve found I can do (if I’m not dog tired):
* Put up a cyberpunk-esque visual overlay in my peripheral vision when I’m doing a task that requires things to be ticked off a checklist.
* Remember word-lists easily IF they have images illustrating the words - as I can see the picture easily.
* Remembering phone numbers is a funny one - I can do it both aurally and through remembering the sequence of numbers I’ve punched into the phone. The physical memory (muscle memory) seems faster - but that might be because it gets used more often. I use my visual memory much less often as I don’t get to see phone numbers written out as often these days.
Of course, this may be old hat to most people - but it’s pretty new to me.
By Mike Cane on Jun 17, 2008 | Reply
A billion years ago, I had this wonderful graphic that showed how people moved their eyes to do different things. It was an absolutely brilliant and true piece of work. I lost it and haven’t found it anywhere since.
I’m glad to see Eamon mention physical memory. I sometimes have to rely on that for phone numbers instead of calling up the digits in my head!
By Eamon on Jun 18, 2008 | Reply
The ‘wonderful graphic’ sounds interesting Mike. If you could provide a bit of a description of it I’d love to exercise my Google-Fu and see what comes up…