The Left-brain/Right-brain Dominance Factor

Here's where the subject gets real interesting.

By now you should have a fairly good understanding of the differences exhibited by the left versus the right brain and some of the human traits that result. As mentioned in the previous blog, most people use one half of their brain more than the other and the side most used is called the "dominant" brain. Those who use each side of their brain equally are in deed gifted.

I'll talk about my own brain dominance first. I'm very left-brain dominant. 
Tests show I'm 70% left-brain dominant. This is not too surprising as I was an aerospace electronic equipment engineer. You need to be left-brain dominant to do that type of work. Probably most engineers, mathematicians and scientist are left-brain dominant. But my younger brother is right-brain dominant. He's an artist who paints pictures and designs furniture, etc. 

There's an interesting true story about my brother and I. When I was in high school I joined the Chess Club and started learning how to play the game. Once a number of us learned all the moves, etc., we started playing each other. After a while I was winning about as many as I lost. School was over for the summer and one day my brother and I were wondering what to do. I asked him if he'd like to learn to play chess, he said "Yes". I had a chess set at home so I started getting him acquainted with the rules and the different moves for each piece. Once he had a good sense of how to play the game, we started practice games. He caught on fairly fast, so we started to play against each other. He learned quickly and before long he was winning 3 out 4 games. I couldn't figure out why he was so good at it.

It wasn't until recently that I realized why he was able to beat me so quickly.
Because my brother is right-brain dominant, he could look at the entire board to determine what his next move should be. Me and my left brain had to look at each piece and figure out which one to move and to where. He was looking at the over all board while I was concentrating on the individual pieces. That was a real life demonstration on how a left-brain person and a right-brain person tried to solve the same problem using their respective dominant brain.  

Here's an example of Implicit versus Explicit . This is an actual event between a right-brain Wife (W:) and a left-brain Husband (H:).

W: "I'm leaving now". H: "Where are you going?". W: "I'm going on some errands". H: "When will you be back?". W: "Oh, I won't be long". 

H: "I'm leaving now to do some shopping". W: "Where are you going?" H: "I'm going to Home Depot and Sears to look for some tools". W: "When will you be back?". H: "I should be home by about 3:30".

I'll talk some more about brain dominance in my next blog.
Hope you're having a great week. Regards Dick