TOPIC: ARGUMENT53 - Thirteen years ago, researchers studied a group of 25 infants who showed signs of mild distress when exposed to unfamiliar stimuli such as an unusual odor or a tape recording of an unknown voice. They discovered that these infants were more likely than other infants to have been conceived in early autumn, a time when their mothers' production of melatonin-a hormone known to affect some brain functions-would naturally increase in response to decreased daylight. In a follow-up study conducted earlier this year, more than half of these children-now teenagers-who had shown signs of distress identified themselves as shy. Clearly, increased levels of melatonin before birth cause shyness during infancy and this shyness continues into later life.
WORDS: 413 TIME:40ms DATE: 2006-7-23
In the argument, the author assert that surplus levels of melatonin, a hormone known to affect some brain function , before birth render shyness during infancy which will continues into later life. To support this conclusion, the speaker bases his reasoning on two researches practiced thirteen years apart. However, after chary analysis, the course of the reasoning was found to be fallacious in that some obvious fallacies exist in the argument, which I would illustrated in details.
To begin with, the arguer doesn't provide any evidence implying that so-called melatonin, though known to affect some brain functions, will absolutely cause the infants surveyed to be distressed when exposed to unfamiliar stimuli. It's fairly possible that this hormone which will augments with declined daylight, doesn't make the infants distressed, but rather causes some other symptoms such as impulsive, imprudent, extrovert, etc. What these symptoms result in is much different from the mild distress as mentioned in the argument.
Furthermore, necessary information needed are not included in the argument evincing that half of the children, once shown signs of distress and said to be identified as shy in current time, are living in a common environment as that of their peers. So there lays the possibility that these children may be brotherless or sisterless, have no nearby friends to play with , or grow up in a single-parent family which more or less bring some negative influence on the development of the characteristics of these children. If these were the case, then they could not communicated so much with others as to express the conviviality or sorrow in the bottom of their hears, hence the shyness may not be a direct consequence of excessive melatonin before birth.
Finally, the amount of infants surveyed in the research was no so abundant that the conclusion drawn from this research was not convincible. Only by a research that analyzes a large number of infants will the conclusion be cogent.
To sum up , the arguer has omitted some important information such as the hormone will directly cause the infants to be distressed , the infants in the research live their childhood in the same environment as that of others, or the 25 infants are selected from various districts and are numerous enough to make a scientific conclusion. So without even relevant assumption, it's hard and hasty to draw such a seemingly logic conclusion that excessive melatonin before birth shyness during infancy and this shyness continues to later life.