A simple answer would be, it conditions our responses to stimuli. For example, touching a searing hot oven tends to make people not do it a second time thus you have now changed the way you respond to hot objects.
For more detail, when your hand touches a really hot object a reflex neuron pathway is activated and bypasses the decision making part of the brain. The pathway's sole goal (in this case) is to get your hand off of that object as fast as possible, so the brain sends a rapid response to the muscles to MOVE and you can't stop it. Pain after you have stopped touching the object is a way of teaching you the lesson of not touching searing hot objects.
Biology and environment work together to help us survive.
How does biological and environmental factors shape our cognitive processes?
1 answer
1 answer