braaaains

[wispfox]

why is it that it's much easier to compare things which are side-by-side than higher or lower on a page? separate pages are easier side-by-side than vertically, too. why? Or is it just me? there's two reasons I print things. this, and the ability to highlight/take notes.

this brought to you by my irritation that chronic lack of sleep, mild illness, mild depression, and being overwhelmed are not, for me, easily distinguishable states (and being interrlated and thus any tending to worsten the others _does not help_!). I think I am all three except depressed right now.

but there are cold meds which I will take at bedtime, not midnight.

and then maybe tomorrow having things I need to do won't seem like a horrible weight on my very existence!

Comments

[jasra]

*hugs* Mew!

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Because we read top to bottom?

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

*blink* Wait, what?

Not completely sure how that would relate to comparing things that are side-by-side being easier than above each other?

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

When you're comparing things, you want to compare similar areas, so you can ignore the parts that are identical and concentrate on the differences. Therefore you need the similar areas to line up.

The top of document A is going to be the beginning of it. The top of document B is going to be the beginning of it. (Obviously)

If they are side by side, top(A) and top(B) are lined up, adjacent. This makes it easier to compare the bits that should be similar.

If they are one above the other, then the top of B is right next to the bottom of A, confusing things. It only gets worse from there as you try to compare middles.

Try comparing two things that are inherently horizontal. For example, have someone write down two sentences *that fit on one line* and try to find differences between them. It'll be easier if they are one above the other, not side by side, because that way the correspondences line up and your brain can filter them out and concentrate on the differences.

(Unless your inherent visual weirdness makes your perception *very* strange, that is.)

Or do it with non-text...two series of shapes, for example.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

*blinky blinky*

Hnuh.

I haven't actually tried this, because imagination was actually sufficient (odd, considering my visual imagination!). That's _really neat_.

I think I was mostly thinking charts/graphs/tables in the side by side comments, not paragraphs/sentences/etc.

*even more fascinated now*

[corivax.livejournal.com]

Neurologically, primates are better at horizontal eye movement than vertical eye movement. If you are trying to move your eyes horizontally, there will be less under/overshooting and tiny correctional shifts (saccades). It is also easier to move eyes down than up. I have no idea why. :) I would guess, though, that evolutionarily it has been more important to us to watching things moving along the ground than to watching things moving up and down in the air.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Hmm! I've noticed this when idly dragging my eyes along horizontal and vertical lines in my surroundings. It's much smoother horizontally than vertically.

Neat!

Re: comparing things

[wolfieboy.livejournal.com]

It might be a bit specific but are you familiar with diff -y. Very handy for checking text files and code and such.

Re: comparing things

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

I think I am, but I'm actually rarely looking directly at code, as I am not a coder by temperment.

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

I have no idea, but I think you're right! I think things that are side by side seem "more the same" -- like somehow having, say, the doors in two pictures of two houses vertically level makes them more comparable. Maybe because I'm not very visual-spatial, and so I can evaluate certain things (like "is the person in picture 1 taller or shorter than the one in picture 2?") pretty much only if their feet are vertically level and I can see whose head is higher? :)

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

*amused by example*

Not very good with spatial awareness, either, but I was actually thinking of diagrams/words/charts type comparisons.