# Analysis of Brain Function.



## Michael. (Sep 30, 2013)

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Our latest arrival

(No provenance)



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## Diwundrin (Sep 30, 2013)

Well, that explains it Warri, you're left brain, I'm right brain.   It pretty much sums our different outlooks up and explains why I can't do maths. 
 Presuming you're right handed that is.

 

Each side of the brain operates the opposite side of the body. 
Saw a comforting quote for we left handers once.  "Only left handed people are in their 'right' mind"


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## Warrigal (Sep 30, 2013)

I'm a hybrid. In the diagram above I fit left brain for the first comparison but my brain functioning fits better with right brain. Every classification system is an oversimplification of reality.

On the Myers Briggs personality classification grid  I am ENTP



> *Extraverted:* ENTPs enjoy interacting with a wide variety of people. They are great conversationalists and love to engage other people in debates. (that's me)
> 
> 
> *Intuitive:* ENTPs are more focused on the future rather than on immediate details. They may start projects and never finish them because they are so focused on the big picture rather than the present needs. (story of my life. The book is terminally stalled.)
> ...



Have you done the Myers Briggs test?
Will you share your classifications code?


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## Diwundrin (Sep 30, 2013)

Okay, I've done it now.  Don't know where you got the rest of the details though. 
 I seem to be the ultimate fence sitter.   (but you knew that.) 





> INTP
> Introvert(67%)  iNtuitive(50%)  Thinking(50%)  Perceiving(22)%
> 
> 
> ...



Maybe it's a different site to the one you used, seems to be a different format?


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## SifuPhil (Sep 30, 2013)

Like Warri said any such classifications are just very general in nature. Which side of your brain is dominant at any moment depends upon circumstances: I use math and science when I'm doing something such as working on maintaining my computers or my car, but when it comes to something like free-form writing I'm almost exclusively right-brained.

Of course most of us INFP's would say something like that ...


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## Warrigal (Sep 30, 2013)

Here you are Di. I just googled myers briggs intp and tried to pick the more creditable prospects.

http://psychology.about.com/od/trait-theories-personality/a/intp.htm



> INTP (introverted, intuitive, thinking, perceiving) is one of the 16 personality types described by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).
> INTPs are often described as quiet and analytical. They enjoy spending time alone, thinking about how things work and coming up with solutions to problems. According to psychologist David Keirsey, creator of the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, approximately one to five percent of people have an INTP personality type.
> 
> *INTP Characteristics*
> ...



The next bit is open to question, for obvious reasons. It's getting a bit close to astrology but it's fun anyway



> [h=3]Famous People With INTP Personalities[/h]Based on analysis of their lives and works, some researchers including Keirsey have suggested that the following famous individuals exhibit INTP characteristics:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



And I'm sure you'll be delighted with this list



> Some famous fictional characters that exhibit INTP characteristics include:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## Diwundrin (Sep 30, 2013)

Data !??  



  I'm mortified!  



That summation is actually pretty close on most points.  Is it too late for a poisonality transplant?


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## Warrigal (Sep 30, 2013)

Here you are Phil - is this you by any chance ?



> Some of the main characteristics of the INFP personality include:
> 
> 
> Loyal and devoted
> ...


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## Diwundrin (Sep 30, 2013)

Well now I'm miffed!  He gets Calvin and I got Data!  Hmmph.


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## That Guy (Sep 30, 2013)




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## SifuPhil (Sep 30, 2013)

Warrigal said:
			
		

> Here you are Phil - is this you by any chance ?





Loyal and devoted - _meh ... I have my times_. 
Sensitive to feelings - _pretty much_ 
Warm, caring and interested in other people - _HAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!_ 
Strong written communication skills - _I like to think so_ 
Prefers to work alone - _Definitely!_ 
Values close relationships - _not anymore_ 
Focuses on the "big picture" rather than the details - _again, it depends upon the situation_ 

I've been taking and re-taking Myers-Briggs assessments as well as dozens of others since college, when I was a psych/philosophy/metaphysics major. I was their favorite lab rat so they kept me in a cage with a Bic pen and plenty of pepperoni pizza, and I was happy to answer their questions.

Over the years my M-B scores haven't really changed appreciably - I'm always an INFP, but the percentages change depending upon where I am in my life. Also something to take under consideration is that any test can be gamed whether consciously or unconsciously, so I might have been giving the answers that they and I expected all this time. 

But I AM into myself, am happy being by myself, consider myself spiritual and creative and need long periods of time to recharge after any social engagement. My earlier years were going against type as I was a party freak, but now I'm running true to form.

Di, I'll trade you my Helen Keller and Wesley Crusher for your Sherlock Holmes and Brian Griffin! layful:


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## Happyflowerlady (Sep 30, 2013)

I haven't taken the test yet, will do that next.   However, the "Phil" personality Warri posted seems to fit a lot of me, so I am guessing I will turn out to be in that one also.
Some of the things used to apply to me more before a few of life's "car wrecks" disillusioned me.
I know the loyalty stuff is still there, but I pretty much have closed out everyone except my kids, and a very few close friends.
Same with the warm and caring about other people. It comes and goes now.

Also, as Phil says, things vary according to circumstances, and even what kind of day I am having. 
Some days I am fine with people, some days are "hide in the closet " days for me. When I sold insurance, I had to kind of step outside of myself, and become an extrovert to do it. I used to envision my manager, and tell myself " I am Bruce walking up to this door"  to be able to do it.
Anyway, very interesting, and going to try the link for the evaluation next.


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## basefare (Sep 30, 2013)

Whatever I've got, right or left, it's about worn out.


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## SifuPhil (Sep 30, 2013)

To really get the most out of the Meyers-Briggs Assessment you really need to take the official version of it, which isn't free. The last time I checked through their site it was about $50, but you know you're getting the real thing with a proper interpretation and not just something half-baked that some punk kid threw up on his website.

I'm all about authority sites. layful:


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## Warrigal (Sep 30, 2013)

Where I was teaching one staff development day was devoted to personality types and styles of learning and it was entitled "Please understand me". The Myers Briggs system was explained so that the teachers would be more understanding of those children who were a bit unusual within the classroom  and for whom there may need to be some adaptation to allow for personality traits. It was a good day and we were offered the proper Myers Briggs analysis free but I refused to participate because I don't like to be typecast and labelled. The other teachers said there was no need to take the test because they could already determine my type and the very fact that I refused the test confirmed it.

Some time later I did take the test in a group activity and I discovered how the differences operate. And my fellow staff were spot on.

With each characteristic, after we determined where we sat on the spectrum, we were divided up and given some kind of task to do together with other of like trait. At one end of the room the very noisy, chaotic group was all the extroverts and at the other end the quiet, calm group were the introverts. Both got the job done in the end but very differently.

Another fascinating characteristic was the intuitive/sensing opposites. We were asked to discuss a piece of art, a poster for some musical performance. The S people analysed the colours, lines and artistic composition. The N people invented a back story that explained the picture eg a member of the band had just died of AIDS and the group was grieving his loss but determined to carry on with the music, etc. The S people could not understand what we were talking about. "How do you read that from the picture?" was the common reaction. "Bullshit" was probably what they meant.


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## Diwundrin (Oct 1, 2013)

I see what you mean with the piece of art. I see it as a balance of tones colours 'weight,' shapes and lines, hardly notice the subject matter at first.  I don't give a tuppeny about what the artist was thinking, or trying to convey.  If it looks good I like it, if not I keep walkin'.

Ever been hypnotized by Blue Poles?  I was.  I don't know to this day what I 'see' in that painting but it mesemerizes me. It must have just been Pollack's lucky day because the rest of his stuff is sh*t.  (to me)  I've seen it a few times and it grabs me every time.

Last time was on a trip to Canberra with Mum in tow.  She was bored with it in 5 seconds so I steered her to a comfy sit down spot and left her talking to another equally bored old dear and went back and sat and stared at that painting for ages. 
She thought I'd been wandering looking at other paintings, so I didn't tell her different.  There was a Monet exhibition on but we'd already done that, it was the reason for the trip, but Blue Poles was 'dessert' for me.

It's impossible to photograph, something is lost. The 3D effect of the painting can't be reproduced.  The colours never come out right either, it's much more vibrant than this photo.  'Size matters' too, it's a huuuuge painting. 6ft x 16ft







> *Blue poles*  [Number 11, 1952] 1952enamel and aluminium paint with glass on canvasOT 367             212.1 (h)  x 488.9 (w) cmsigned and dated l.l., "Jackson Pollock 52";
> (originally inscribed with a "3", subsequently painted over with a "2")



It was bought by the Government for around 2mill $A  back in the 70s.  Arguably the only thing the Whitlam Govt ever got right.  Its valued somewhere between 20 and 100 mill today.

If anyone knows why I like this thing so much could they explain it to me please?


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## Michael. (Oct 1, 2013)

Diwundrin said:


> I see what you mean with the piece of art. I see it as a balance of tones colours 'weight,' shapes and lines, hardly notice the subject matter at first.  I don't give a tuppeny about what the artist was thinking, or trying to convey.  If it looks good I like it, if not I keep walkin'.
> 
> Ever been hypnotized by Blue Poles?  I was.  I don't know to this day what I 'see' in that painting but it mesemerizes me. It must have just been Pollack's lucky day because the rest of his stuff is sh*t.  (to me)  I've seen it a few times and it grabs me every time.
> 
> ...



*_____________________________________________________________________

It is very hppnotic
*
Just like those hidden pictures in a picture (Stereoscopic style).



___________________________________________________________________________________________________


Here is an example.

*Many people are unable to view the hidden picture?*



You have to concentrate on it and with a little practice the hidden picture will open up to you.

.


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## SifuPhil (Oct 1, 2013)

Diwundrin said:


> I see what you mean with the piece of art. I see it as a balance of tones colours 'weight,' shapes and lines, hardly notice the subject matter at first.  I don't give a tuppeny about what the artist was thinking, or trying to convey.  If it looks good I like it, if not I keep walkin'.



Ah, but what if the fledgling artist has taken umbrage against the conventions of line and shadow and, in the process, created an entirely new paradigm? 

I mean, as an advocate of the Big Mac Aesthetic I feel that the optical suggestions of the biomorphic forms contextualize the inherent overspecificity. This one particular break-out artiste I knew was committed to a rigorously formal approach to abstract painting:  his interest was in the visual qualities of the work - its composition,  surface, the relationship of depicted space to line and form - rather than  in any implied meaning or message. His aim was to create a painting  that emphasized its frontal plane in a way that would echo the wall  behind it, suggesting the architectural character of the painting's  shape. Indeed, the work echoes its own edges with its interior  border markings, and even replicates itself in two panels, yet it denies  any allusion to a window, the conventional association that has  accompanied the framed panel or canvas since Renaissance times. The  artist has challenged the viewer to regard his minimal work, stripped of  the more ingratiating aspects of painting, as absolute in its  simplicity.

... or something like that.



> Ever been hypnotized by Blue Poles?



No, but I once had quite a thing going for a dusky Puerto Rican. 



>



Here ya' go - 20 minutes, a straight piece of cardboard and a few cans of Krylon spray-paint ...






> It was bought by the Government for around 2mill $A  back in the 70s.  Arguably the only thing the Whitlam Govt ever got right.  Its valued somewhere between 20 and 100 mill today.



Government should not _be_ in the business of purchasing art. The purpose of government is to _govern_, not to invest. 



> If anyone knows why I like this thing so much could they explain it to me please?



You've most likely been bitten by the _Pretentious Artius_, a small weevil-like insect whose bite injects an unexplainable appreciation of childish scrawls. layful:


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## Diwundrin (Oct 1, 2013)

> I mean, as an advocate of the Big Mac Aesthetic I feel that the optical  suggestions of the biomorphic forms contextualize the inherent  overspecificity.



Yeah.  That! 



Told ya, dunno why I like it.  I'm not a fan of abstract art per se, even less of some of the whack jobs waxing lyrical about that crap you just so eloquently expressed.

What makes us like one painting but not others from the same artist?  Why one piece of music but not others from a songwriter or composer?  There must be some kind of pattern that the brain resonates with.   Or then again I could be bullsh***ng like an abstract artist. 



That Government buying art thing, one the Nation's greatest displays of apathy over-ride ensued over that.  It's a long political story but suffice to say the Left was in and determined to drag us into the world of artyfarty and social awareness and what better way than to kick off the new National Gallery than by buying something useless, and worse, not Australian, which could have paid for a hospital? 

 Everybody was an instant art expert and looking back on it now it was quite hilarious to see some old codger in a blue singlet and a daggy hat being interviewed in a bar about what he thought of Blue Poles.  The only other painting he'd ever seen was the nude over the bar.

I went to see it the first time prepared for what I'd seen pictured in the papers and mags and to grind my teeth and mutter phrases about wicked waste of money but I liked it.  There went another excuse to bash the Govt.  siiiiiigh.
--------------

Those 3d puzzle things Michael, they don't always work for me, my eyes don't line up right or something but takes ages for the effect to kick in and then it looks to be hollows instead or 3d forms.  When I look at a picture of the moon I see mounds, not craters.  I have to consciously look at it and tell myself that they're craters then the perception changes and I see them as craters.  Brains are strange things aren't they?

...control yourselves ! Be nice.


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## SifuPhil (Oct 1, 2013)

The way I have been taught by my Taoist philosophy teachers is to simply look at the piece of art and accept whatever I feel. I don't try to justify it, nor do I attempt to explain any feelings that it evokes in me. 

It simply "is". Which is an evil way of avoiding the whole left brain / right brain thing. 

That's why I get a kick out of all the art critics like the one whose tone I parodied above - they go to painful lengths to create a world in a nutshell.



> I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.
> ~ Hamlet
> 
> _Hamlet_, Act II, Scene 2


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## Diwundrin (Oct 1, 2013)

I equate art critics and, wine connoiseurs and 'barristas' with used car salesman I'm afraid.  It's just a painting, plonk and cawfee to me.

... chocolate though is an entirely different subject.


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