Dear Jean,

great experiment - turning things upside-down often helps me see key
features and their relationships.

Your experiment also makes me ponder how many "unusual" members we have
on this list.

What do I mean?

My wife, who is left handed, is also ambidextrous (that of course
should read ambisinisterous - or whatever double left-handed is in
Latin). This is common enough but, along with a special collective of
left-handed souls, she can read upside-down and write upside-down with
both hands (at the same time if she tries hard enough). This freaks
people out when she marks her students' work upside-down. She also has
stronger maths skills than language skills.

I know from web searchers that there are other groups of left-handed
weirdness. 

And also, we have the 3d rotation people (rotate objects in 3
dimensions in their heads).

cheers from a right handed dunce who is lucky to see more than 2
dimension on a clear day.

keith
 
>>> Jean Schneider <[log in to unmask]> 06/06/11 6:14 PM >>> 
Your anecdote reminds me of a test that I did on both of my kids,  
when they were between 2-3. I could read them a story book with the  
images upside down, it didn't puzzle them at all and they perfectly  
recognised the various characters in the illustration. And this would 

stand even against the rotation : say that you start with page 2 and  
3 upside down, than 4-5 correct, than turn again... always worked !
It is only later that they were telling me : you are holding the book 

in the wrong direction (you're stupid, dad !).

Says a lot about the various traits of perception, and I always  
wondered, if they weren't told by the others (telling them that they  
were holding the book the wrong way), whether they could develop an  
ability to identify features (and see them in relation, I am not  
limiting this to recognition) that would be far more skilful than  
what they are able to do today.

While playing, it was taking me to so many directions : cognition,  
cultural abilities, abstraction in art etc.

Jean


Le 6 juin 11 à 05:44, Keith Russell a écrit :

For example, he changed his mind about the base frequently -
this lead to a few crashes and it led to him working upside-down. His
upside-down work reminded me of accounts of the process of Gaudi on
turning models for the Sagrada Família upside-down to see how gravity
worked. My grandson wasn't looking for gravity but he also wasn't
trapped into the presumed logic of the blocks.

Soon he will forget this freedom.