3 ms·
Ha, "laterally challenged" was a new and fantastic label, I'll try to apply that to myself whenever I get left and right wrong. It's an interesting problem tho
by henrikschroder 11y ago
Ha, "laterally challenged" was a new and fantastic label, I'll try to apply that to myself whenever I get left and right wrong.
It's an interesting problem though, I have excellent sense of direction and I'm good at 3D visualization and map reading. I don't get the directions wrong, I get the words for the directions wrong.
I can happily point the left, know we should go to the left, and say "let's go right!"
So it's probably a very different problem from, say, people who lack sense of direction, my problem is more like extremely narrow aphasia. I don't know of anyone who confuses up and down in the same manner though, it's interesting that it's just left and right, and that it's not that uncommon!
- bryondowd 11y agoRegarding up/down vs left/right. Perspective is an issue with left/right, but generally not for up/down. Everyone in the vast majority of circumstances share the same up/down perspective. When it comes to left/right, you often have to do some mental acrobatics to figure out what the frame of reference is, in order to figure out which way is left or right from that frame of reference. It's easy to just point and say "that way", but to know whether to say "left" or "right" you have to think, "ok, this is my left, but which way is he facing, is that his right? ok, but if I say right, will he think I'm saying his right or mine?" That's why sailors invented port and starboard. Maybe we should apply this to doctors. "Ok, we're operating on the starboard knee today!" To be fair, I assume they use left/right from the perspective of the patient, but I could see using a separate pair of terms being useful, the same way it's useful to say port/starboard instead of saying left/right and an understanding that the perspective is focused toward the bow (front) of the ship.
- pygy_ 11y ago> To be fair, I assume they use left/right from the perspective of the patient. That's correct. The trouble is in anatomy and hence in radiography, the standard position is having the patient facing you. Left and right are thus systematically inverted in medical images
- ars 11y ago> I don't know of anyone who confuses up and down in the same manner though Maybe interview some astronauts.
- pygy_ 11y agoI'm in the same boat. Unless I move the corresponding hand, I mix up left and right when I speak. Also, unrelated: What's worse than autocorrect? Autocorrect in thé wrong language.
- rrss1122 11y agoI had similar problem as a kid, just couldn't remember the words for left and right until someone finally told me "L for left hand".