[Seeing Technology]

I am Left eye dominant and right turn comfortable…struggle going left

[Seeing Technology]

On 9/14/2006 at 4:35 AM, botte said:

Hi riders:

 

Are you better at turning right than left? Or left than right? Would you be willing to help to test an idea that might explain this?

 

I would like to find out if the typical rider is better, worse, or the same in taking turns toward his/her dominant eye. I need data from as many riders as possible to get a good statistical basis for determining if eye dominance and “best turn direction” are related or not.

 

How could this help you ride better? If there is a relationship between eye dominance and turn direction, then in Keith’s language, we might be able to develop a better “technology” of seeing through turns—maybe finding a way of visually locating reference points faster, or getting better at sampling speed, as we turn toward our “bad” side.

 

Please tell me which (if any) eye is dominant and which (if any) way you turn best—either by posting in this forum, or by emailing me at eric.h.bott@saic.com.

 

Please report your results as follows:

Right eye dominant: RD

Neither dominant: ND

Strong left eye dominant: LD

 

I turn better to the right: RT

I turn the same either way: NT

I turn better to the left: LT

 

For example: “Hey, Eric, I’m LD/RT”.

 

In order to help in this, you need to give me BOTH your eye dominance AND your turn effectiveness indication. If I get at least 30 responses for right dominance and 30 for left dominance, I will publish the results in this forum, and we can start to think about the technology of seeing.

 

 

If you don’t know or aren’t sure which eye is dominant, find out as follows:

 

Make a small hole (1/8” – 1/4”) in the center of a card or piece of paper. With both eyes open, find a distant object that can be completely seen through the hole with the card/paper held at arm’s length. Without blinking either eye or losing sight of the object, slowly draw the card/paper back to your head. (Keep your eyes focused at the object you selected.)

 

In doing this, if you have a dominant eye, you will draw the hole in the card/paper up to that eye. At some point in this process, your perception may “snap”, and you will realize that one eye is actually looking at the back of the card/paper, rather than at the distant object you initially chose. In this case, your focus will probably switch to the back of the card/paper. Try the test a couple more times, and see whether you most often tend to draw the card/paper toward one eye or randomly towards either, or whether you never get far enough to tell. If your results are random or you never get far enough to tell, you probably don’t have a dominant eye. If you most often draw toward one eye, it’s the dominant one.

 

Whatever your results from this test, don’t worry. Except for the fact that you ride motorcycles way too fast, there are plenty of other people just like you!