Why is it that if you are 50 miles from home and you have to use the restroom it can usually wait, but once get within two blocks you end up barely making it home and end up running to the toilet?
2007-03-26 05:45:15 · 20 answers · asked by ? 5 in Entertainment & Music ➔ Polls & Surveys
i just wear depends at all times, ya know like the astronauts do...
2007-03-26 05:50:29 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
This has to do with stimulus control and establishing operations. These are term from behavior analysis. (Believe it or not there's a whole science that studies stuff like this... usually not about finding restrooms, though!)
An establishing operation is something that makes you want something more and work harder to get it. Being hungry is an establishing operation... it makes you want food more and makes you do more activities to get food. Needing to go to the bathroom is another kind of EO. It makes finding a bathroom a lot more valuable than when you don't need to go.
Stimulus control has to do with the signs in the environment that indicate that the thing you're wanting can be gotten. The sign for a gas station, for example, lets you know you could get gas there. However, unless you need gas (an EO) you don't pay much attention to the sign.
Needing to go to the restroom is an establishing operation that makes all the behavior leading up to getting to the toilet more worthwhile. When you're a mile from your home and you have to go, you may think, "I'm close. I can wait." But then you keep seeing signs that tell you you're closer to the bathroom. The edge of your neighborhood... your street, your driveway, your front door... etc.
The closer you get to the big payoff (which we call a reinforcer) the more actively you'll "do stuff" to get to that big payoff. In the case of the distant bathroom, the big payoff is the act of relieving yourself.
As you approach your "big payoff" location, all the signs in the environment are telling you it's going to happen soon, so your body prepares for that in response to the environment. At the same time the physical urgency is building anyway because you need to go.
2007-03-26 13:00:44 · answer #2 · answered by Behaviorist 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
when you are 50 miles away you're thinking of getting home but when you are closer,you start thinking of the restroom more and more cause you are close!
2007-03-26 13:02:40 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think it's because when you get close to your house/office, your brain says, "Oh. I need to pee, and there's a toilet reeeeal close." But even though you're not THAT close to the toilet, your brain isn't convinced (so it sends a signal to your sphincters [the muscles that keep the pee from coming out] to relax).
I hope that makes sense. :)
2007-03-26 12:53:20 · answer #4 · answered by totalhippofreak 1 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Not me. I have to pull off the road if I've got to go and it's that far. I've learned all the best stops along the way, even for just a 20 minute drive.
2007-03-26 12:49:22 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I don't know and that's an answer. But I can sit here for 45 minutes after I Have to pee. Do I win a prize??? @80)
I know you all do it too!!! Get Real!!!
2007-03-26 12:51:07 · answer #6 · answered by Pamela 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I think it's psychological..the closer to the toilet, the more the urge!! I know what you mean!!
2007-03-26 12:48:31 · answer #7 · answered by Nasubi 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
that's true. It's because your bladder and bowels sense a toilet is nearby
2007-03-26 12:49:33 · answer #8 · answered by lady luck 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I hate it when you pee a little right before you get your pants down.
LOL... I'm in a rare mood - I need to go to bed...
2007-03-26 13:48:21 · answer #9 · answered by THATgirl 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Every time I'm away from home that's all I have to do.
2007-03-26 12:51:05 · answer #10 · answered by Backwoods Barbie 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋