argument53 婴儿的羞涩

venisUID：126080

53.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.
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In the argument, the author claims that increased levels of melatonin before birth cause shyness during infancy and later life period. To support this conclusion, a study was provided that a group of 25 infants showed distress when they were stimulated by unusual odor and sound. What is more, the arguer points out that conceived mothers' production of melatonin that can affect infants' brains increased at early autumn. However, the argument is unconvincing for the presence of several critical flaws.

First, the argument cannot be well-supported by the study provided in the article. Since the arguer makes a conclusion about infants in general, the infants sampled for the experiment should be able to represent all infants. However, only a group of 25 babies were tested, the research that infants showed signs of emotion when exposed to unfamiliar stimuli must be based on more thorough investigation to gather data in order to narrow down and locate the actual reaction of infants. Using minority to represent the whole is logically unacceptable and hence we have a good reason to doubt whether the sample is representative enough to reflect overall infants' reaction to experimental stimuli.

Second, the author falsely deduced a conclusion that these infants were more likely than other infants to have been conceived in early autumn. Such a deduction based on a unpersuasive theory that their mother increased to product a hormone called melatonin, which would naturally increase in response to decreased daylight. If this were the case, these mothers should more likely conceived in winter other than in autumn, because winter daylight becomes lesser than autumn. Thus the author's deduction is unbelievable, saying nothing that this hormone would result in shyness after these infants grew up and melatonin can influence them continually.

Finally, the article fails to account for alternative explanations for shyness of these children who had shown signs of distress. Perhaps they were educated under a kind of conservative culture and always lived in strict circumstance, or they suffered some terrible events in babyhood. Without considering and ruling out these and other possible explanations, the arguer cannot justifiably conclude that melatonin is responsible for these children’s shyness.

In summary, the argument is untenable as it stands. To make it logically acceptable, the author needs to convince me that the study can represent all infants objectively. Similarly, more evidences must be provided in order to prove author's deduction that increase of melatonin affects infants' birth, and the arguer has to exclude other possibilities caused children's shyness.

[ Last edited by staralways on 2005-7-24 at 22:50 ]

thomaslee1982UID：141793

looks nice!!

黯UID：2107524

粗看了下，结构不错呢!!
:)