Argument53 [勇往直前小组]第十次作业ByPuding

PudingUID：2364107

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: 359          TIME: 0:30:00          DATE: 2007-7-29
MODIFIED:435

In the argument the author concludes that the increased level of melatonin before birth cause shyness during infancy and this shyness continues into later life. At first glance the argument seems convincing, however, after careful examination I find that the argument is poor, because the evidences in argument cannot lead strongly support to the author's claim.

First and foremost, the author fails to make a relationship before melatonin and the mild distress. The author assert that it is the melatonin that cause the mild distress, to support this claim, he cites the infants born in autumn ,when their mother's production of melatonin increase, showed signs of mild distress when exposed to unfamiliar stimuli. However, the argument indicates no scientific evidences to show the function of the melatonin, so it is unfair to generalize that the melatonin is related to mild distress. Even assuming that the melatonin has a effect of making people distressed, it is possible that the effect is on mothers rather than the infants. In addition, the mild distress of the infants might not result from the melatonin, but from the uncomfortable feeling of the stimuli.

Even though the mild of the infants are result from melatonin, the author establishes no relationship between distress and shyness. To substantiate his claim, the author points out that more than half of these children-now teenagers who had shown signs of distress identified themselves as shy. Yet do the identification of shy really mean shyness? Perhaps the children who identified themselves as shy are not shy at all. Even though these children are shy, we cannot make a relationship between this kind of shy to the distress 13 years ago. Thus the author fails to relate shyness to distress.

Even assuming that the shyness means distress, the statement provides no material about the children’s life through out 13 years. As we know, environment contributes greatly to human's character. Thus the environment plays a important role in figuring the shyness. It is extremely possible that the children lives in families that are very conservative, this makes the children always feel shy when face with strange things.

To sum up, the author fails to convince me that the increased level of melatonin before birth cause shyness during infancy and this shyness continues into later life, because the evidence in the analysis does not lend strong support to what the author maintains. To make the argument more convincing, the arguer would have to provide more information as to the effect of melatonin that brings to the infants. In addition, whether the effect will last long, needs the arguer to consider.