How to Test What Side of the Brain You Use
- 1). Analyze your problem-solving style. Take a few moments to write down how you best solve problems at work and at home. If you are able to pull good solutions "out of thin air" you are a right-brainer. If you analyze every single available fact (no matter how small or insignificant it may be) before choosing a course of action, you are a left-brainer. Right-brainers are more comfortable thinking "outside the box" than left-brainers. Left-brainers are more comfortable with details than right-brainers, who prefer to focus on the big picture.
- 2). Take a quiz. Not that a standard quiz is conclusive, but it will at least indicate whether you primarily think with your right brain or your left brain. The Art Institute of Vancouver has a comprehensive 54-question quiz that covers basic questions like whether you enjoy math or reading, and if you are a visual learner or can learn best from oral instruction. At the end, the program will "grade" your quiz and tell you which side of your brain is dominant.
- 3). Watch the dancer. The image of a spinning dancer that determines right brain or left brain thinking can be found by following the References links for this article. If you perceive the dancer as spinning clockwise, you are a right-brain thinker. If the dancer is spinning counterclockwise, you are a left-brain thinker. For fun, try to visualize the dancer spinning the other way as you watch. It's harder than you think, but if you can do it, you may just be an ambidextrous thinker.