Le freak, c'est chic!

Last week I encountered this fun little quiz about brain lateralization*. Of course I had to take it because test-taking is one of my most valuable skills, or at least it was forty years ago. I thought the questions were weird and kind of lame, and I was frustrated because there weren't nearly enough 'none of the above' options.

My suspicions about its validity seemed to be confirmed by my results:

Your Brain Usage Profile:

Auditory : 50%
Visual : 50%
Left : 50%
Right : 50%

Ri-i-i-ight. How could that even be possible? Then I read the summary:

Liz, you are one of those rare individuals who are perfectly "balanced" in both your hemispheric tendencies and your sensory learning preferences. However, there is both good news and bad news.

A problem with hemispheric balance is that you will tend to feel more conflict than someone who has a clearly established dominance. At times the conflict will be between what you feel and what you think but will also involve how you attack problems and how you perceive information. Details which will seem important to the right hemisphere will be discounted by the left and vice versa, which can present a hindrance to learning efficiently.

In the same vein, you may have a problem with organization. You might organize your time and/or space only to feel the need to reorganize five to ten weeks later.

On the positive side**, you bring resources to problem-solving that others may not have. You can perceive the "big picture" and the essential details simultaneously and maintain the cognitive perspective required. You possess sufficient verbal skills to translate your intuition into a form which can be understood by others while still being able to access ideas and concepts which do not lend themselves to language.

Your balanced nature might lead you to second-guess yourself in artistic endeavors, losing some of the fluidity, spontaneity and creativity that otherwise would be yours.

With your balanced sensory styles, you process data alternately, at times visually and other times auditorially. This usage of separate memories may cause you to require more time to integrate information or re-access it. When presented with situations which force purely visual or purely auditory learning, increased anxiety is likely and your learning efficiency will decrease.

Your greatest benefit is that you can succeed in multiple fields due to the great plasticity and flexibility you possess.

Oh. My Gah. Talk about freakishly accurate! I'll admit, I was slightly weirded out, especially by the highlighted sections.

Welcome to the wondrous mass of conflicting impulses that is me.

Is it just me? Does it work for you? Give it a try, then leave a comment telling me what you get and how accurately you think it describes you.

And if anyone else comes up 50% across the board (without trying to on purpose!) let me know and I'll send you something goofy in the mail. I'm so hoping it's not just me....

* Yeah, I know. 'Brain lateralization' and 'fun' are two concepts that should never, ever go together.

** I should highlight this entire paragraph but the Protestant Ancestors wouldn't let me. Pricks.