I too find that the dancer just will. not. spin. counterclockwise. no matter how long I look at it.
But after trying a few things, I found an “intervention” to make it so. (No clue whether it’ll work for anyone else, but I find it interesting that it works for me.) While looking at the dancer, I hold my right hand in front of the gif on the screen, slightly below so I can see both; then as the leg goes leftward, I perform counter-clockwise rotation with the hand, as if loosening an oversized screw. (And I try to make the act very deliberate, rather than absent-mindedly doing the movement.) After repeating this a few times, I generally perceive the counter-clockwise rotation, which sometimes lasts a few seconds and sometimes longer.
I also tried putting other counter-clockwise-spinning animations next to the dancer, but that didn’t do anything.
For me the dancer was spinning contraclockwise and would not change. With your screwing trick I could change rotation, and where now stably stuck in the clockwise direction. Until I screwed in the other direction. I’ve now done this back and forth a few times.
In case you missed it, there’s a show/hide box at the bottom of the wiki article with three side-by-side synchronized spinning dancers—the original one in the middle, and broken-symmetry ones on either side, with internal edges drawn in to break the ambiguity. I fixed my gaze on the counterclockwise dancer while gradually uncovering the original dancer with my hand, and thus got the original spinning counterclockwise in my peripheral vision. Then I gradually moved my eyes towards the original and had her spinning counterclockwise in the center of my view for a bit! …But then she flipped back when I blinked. Sounds vaguely similar to the kind of thing you were doing. I got bored pretty quick and stopped trying :)
I find that by focusing on the legs of the dancer, I managed to see it oscillating: half-turn clockwise then half-turn counterclockwise with the feet towards the front. However, this always break when I start looking at the arms. Interesting
For me your method didn’t work, but I found another one. I wave the finger (that’s pointing down) in front of the image in a spinning motion synchronized with the leg movement and going in the direction that I want. The finger obscures the dancer quite a bit, which makes it easier for me to imagine it spinning in the “right” direction. Sometimes I’d see it spin in the “right” direction for like 90 degrees and then stubbornly go back again, but eventually it complies and starts spinning in how I want it. Then I can remove the finger and it continues.
I too find that the dancer just will. not. spin. counterclockwise. no matter how long I look at it.
But after trying a few things, I found an “intervention” to make it so. (No clue whether it’ll work for anyone else, but I find it interesting that it works for me.) While looking at the dancer, I hold my right hand in front of the gif on the screen, slightly below so I can see both; then as the leg goes leftward, I perform counter-clockwise rotation with the hand, as if loosening an oversized screw. (And I try to make the act very deliberate, rather than absent-mindedly doing the movement.) After repeating this a few times, I generally perceive the counter-clockwise rotation, which sometimes lasts a few seconds and sometimes longer.
I also tried putting other counter-clockwise-spinning animations next to the dancer, but that didn’t do anything.
I tried it and it works for me too.
For me the dancer was spinning contraclockwise and would not change. With your screwing trick I could change rotation, and where now stably stuck in the clockwise direction. Until I screwed in the other direction. I’ve now done this back and forth a few times.
In case you missed it, there’s a show/hide box at the bottom of the wiki article with three side-by-side synchronized spinning dancers—the original one in the middle, and broken-symmetry ones on either side, with internal edges drawn in to break the ambiguity. I fixed my gaze on the counterclockwise dancer while gradually uncovering the original dancer with my hand, and thus got the original spinning counterclockwise in my peripheral vision. Then I gradually moved my eyes towards the original and had her spinning counterclockwise in the center of my view for a bit! …But then she flipped back when I blinked. Sounds vaguely similar to the kind of thing you were doing. I got bored pretty quick and stopped trying :)
I can see the dancers spinning in different directions.
I find that by focusing on the legs of the dancer, I managed to see it oscillating: half-turn clockwise then half-turn counterclockwise with the feet towards the front. However, this always break when I start looking at the arms. Interesting
For me your method didn’t work, but I found another one. I wave the finger (that’s pointing down) in front of the image in a spinning motion synchronized with the leg movement and going in the direction that I want. The finger obscures the dancer quite a bit, which makes it easier for me to imagine it spinning in the “right” direction. Sometimes I’d see it spin in the “right” direction for like 90 degrees and then stubbornly go back again, but eventually it complies and starts spinning in how I want it. Then I can remove the finger and it continues.
On my phone, rotating the screen by 180° quickly reverses the direction and then I rotate it back slowly.