Social Do you have difficulty determing your left hand from your right?

[ralphc1]

Not left and right, but to be honest, often have to take a second to remember east and west.

When I'm in a new place takes a while to feel out the cardinal directions

I was going to bring up cardinal directions. There are people who have a lot of trouble with those too. Where I worked a coworker tripped a circuit breaker and wanted to know where the panel was. I told him in the North West corner of the building and he couldn't figure out where that was even though he had worked there for over 5 years.

 

[Mr. Shickadance]

I’ve known a couple people like this , and never questioned their intelligence because of it. It seemed only like on stupid deficiency that never effected their life in any way but receiving directions. So they never cared to work on it. I was the same way with north east west and south until I started working in a field that required me to pay attention to those things

 

[Cajun]

She should have had them jerk off... there is no doubt that they would have all gotten the answer right..

 

[Squintz]

 

[ralphc1]

Can safely say that the Sherdoggers who can't distinguish left from right won't self-report in this thread.

It isn't so much not knowing left from right. It's how much one has to think about it. Do you ever have to consciously think about it or is it second nature? A couple have mentioned forming the letter L with the had to determine which is left. I had never heard of that before. To me, left and right are as simple as up and down. It might be a case of a parent who had some difficulty with left and right who was taught that mnemonic device and passed it down to their children. This could suggest that it is a genetic trait. I suspect we all have things we can do that we think everyone can do but the human brain is an oddity and doesn't seem to work the same for everyone.

No. When I was a kid, my father taught me to make an L with my thumb and index finger. The hand which the L was correctly pointed was the one that was my left.

Years later, I had to show my french girlfriend that so she could remember in English what the word for gauche and droite are.

 

[ThaiSexPills]

It isn't so much not knowing left from right. It's how much one has to think about it. Do you ever have to consciously think about it or is it second nature? A couple have mentioned forming the letter L with the had to determine which is left. I had never heard of that before. To me, left and right are as simple as up and down. It might be a case of a parent who had some difficulty with left and right who was taught that mnemonic device and passed it down to their children. This could suggest that it is a genetic trait. I suspect we all have things we can do that we think everyone can do but the human brain is an oddity and doesn't seem to work the same for everyone.

I have no problem with left and right. It’s like up and down to me too. It was just when I was a child, how I could remember what one is left which I knew as my dominant side.

 

[Starck]

It isn't so much not knowing left from right. It's how much one has to think about it. Do you ever have to consciously think about it or is it second nature? A couple have mentioned forming the letter L with the had to determine which is left. I had never heard of that before. To me, left and right are as simple as up and down. It might be a case of a parent who had some difficulty with left and right who was taught that mnemonic device and passed it down to their children. This could suggest that it is a genetic trait. I suspect we all have things we can do that we think everyone can do but the human brain is an oddity and doesn't seem to work the same for everyone.

It's a definite phenomenon. I remember the teacher reminding kids how to distinguish left and right with their hands in first grade and just sitting there dumbfounded because it was second nature for me.

 

[PBAC]

"First of all, you have to orient right from left in yourself," he says. When the answer doesn't come instantly, participants described various techniques, from making an L shape with their thumb and index finger, to thinking about which hand they use to write, or strum a guitar. "For some people it's a tattoo on their body or a piercing," Gormley says.

they describing the mental processes required to identify right or left. Short example:
spot the O
XXXXXXXXOXXXXXXX

How many Xs
XXX0X0X000X0XXX0

Now spot the odd X out
0XX
X00X0X0
X0X0X0X0X0X0X
00X0X0X0x000x0x0x00x0x0x0xx0

For some people the first one is obvious ... so when you are thinking of left and right without any form of conscious thought process, e.g self checking your left and right hands. The second example is more confusing and requires a bit more process. This would categories people who like the article mention need identifiers. The third one looks complex but is actually easier than the first one but the different layers of stimuli make it seem harder The left and right comparison looks like a subtle nod to learning identifiers e.g anxiety is a form of stimuli which makes people second guess themselves causing them to rely on unnecessary cues to remember things for them

actually I'm just trying to push my psychology course in everyone's face

 

[SummerStriker]

When i became a paramedic back in the day, i literally did drills to quickly overcome it so i wouldn't be useless. If my job wasn't so impossible without right / left mastery I still wouldn't get it.

 

[bandicoot]

What was your first clue?

 

[MeatWagon06]

Only when it comes to my testes.

 

[lakersfan45]

I screw up up and down I can’t tell the difference a lot and no I’m not kidding

 

[ralphc1]

I screw up up and down I can’t tell the difference a lot and no I’m not kidding

Do you get dizzy? I've had bouts of vertigo but even during those, I can still tell which direction is up.

 

[lakersfan45]

Do you get dizzy? I've had bouts of vertigo but even during those, I can still tell which direction is up.

No vertigo issues. Or dizzy. But I can’t tell u how many times I’ve thought I was going up a street and someone looks at me like this told me we are going down and vice versa

 

[chill doggie]

No but I have difficulty determining what to eat.

 

[Osculater]

Funeral home and hospital

 

[TCE]

No vertigo issues. Or dizzy. But I can’t tell u how many times I’ve thought I was going up a street and someone looks at me like this told me we are going down and vice versa

That's very interesting.

 

[Hollywood Jack]

I came across this article today.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230112-why-some-people-cant-tell-left-from-right
It can seem like an almost childish mistake, but a surprising number of adults confuse left from right and scientists are only just starting to understand why.

I've worked with people that when given directions using left and right always seem to get it wrong. I always thought they just weren't listening but, according to this article, 1 in 6 people can have difficulty identifying their right and left hands.



Are you part of the group that can have trouble with left and right directions?

As an adult I don’t have trouble but I had a hard time as a kid. The way I taught myself the difference is that I have a beauty mark on my left hand but not my right.

 

[FyrFytr998]

No. I have a tattoo on my right hand. Easy peasy.