Question

How is habituation useful to an animal

Answer 1

@poopsiedoodle

Answer 2

Define habituation.

Answer 3

I looked it up and honestly the definitions are really confusing. can you put the definition into something I can understand?

Answer 4

Sure.

"Habituation" is where we sense something, so many times, that we get used to it, and stop responding to it.

Here's an example:

Two days ago, I heard loud noises outside my bedroom window.
My response was to look out the window, to see what it was.
It was my neighbor, doing construction work on his own home.

This morning, I heard the same noise again.
But I didn't look outside my window. I didn't respond to the noise anymore.
Why? Because I was used to it. I had become "habituated" to the noise.

Do you get it?

Answer 5

Yes thanks. Does a dog also go through it? With learning tricks or people?

Answer 6

I'm not sure what you mean by that.

When people try to teach dogs new tricks, they're using something called "Operant Conditioning."
That's where we reward the dogs, for doing things that we want them to do.

It's a little different from "habituation."

Answer 7

can you give me an example with a wild animal?

Answer 8

Yes.

Prairie dogs make loud noises, whenever they see someone or something coming toward them. This includes humans.
They do this, to warn the other prairie dogs.

But there are some places where humans walk near prairie dogs all the time.
And sometimes, the humans never hurt the prairie dogs.

So, the prairie dogs get used to seeing humans. And they stop making noises, whenever they see a human.

Answer 9

ok that kind of like moose they get used to see humans that unless they come really close they don't mind you?

Answer 10

Yeah. They become "habituated" to the humans.

Answer 11

Can it also help for hibernation?

Answer 12

What do you mean?

Answer 13

they get used to their routine and they just hibernate

Answer 14

"Habituation" is all about getting used to a stimulus.

A "stimulus" is anything that we can see, hear, smell, taste, or touch.

A routine isn't really a stimulus, you know?

Answer 15

oh ok saying hear smell taste or touch helped

Answer 16

what about when we eat a certain food then we don't eat it ever because we are used to its horrible taste

Answer 17

Good question.

Humans and animals can become habituated to food that they eat, over and over again.

When we become habituated to food, we get tired of it, and we eat less of it.

Answer 18

If you ate pasta everyday, for breakfast lunch and dinner, you would probably start eating less and less pasta at every meal, because you would get tired of it. You would become "habituated" to it.

Answer 19

Like dogs and their food?

Answer 20

You explained that really well. Can you help me with just one more?

Answer 21

Yes.

Answer 22

Celiac disease is a disease that affects the digestive system. When people with the disease eat foods containing gluten, a material found in wheat products, their immune system damages or destroys their villi. What are villi and why are they important? How might the lack of villi affect a person’s digestive process?

Answer 23

Inside of our intestines, we have a whole bunch of these little tiny buds, called "villi."

I've attached a picture.

These villi help our intestines take the nutrients out of the food that we eat,
so that our bodies can use those nutrients.

Answer 24

and then discard the bad, except fat that stays on you :(

Answer 25

Right. Everything we don't need, we just poop out.

Answer 26

But let's go back to the main question:

"How might lack of villi affect a person's digestive process?"

In other words,
how would having damaged villi hurt a person's body?

We know why they're important.

Answer 27

we could not survive unless we get those nutrients another way

Answer 28

That's right.

Without villi, our bodies would not be able to get nutrients from the food that we eat.

And without those nutrients, our cells would die.

Answer 29

thanks you helped me understand all of these really well

Answer 30

By habituating to less important signals, an animal can focus its attention on the most important features of its environment. A good example of this is species that rely on alarm calls to convey information about predators. In this case animals stop giving alarm calls when they become familiar with other species in their environment that turn out not to be predators. Habituation is an important component of "not crying wolf" when non-threatening animals come close.