Argument53 【0906G 文以载道三月四月小组】 第二周第一次作业 by ph粉丝

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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.
13年前，研究者研究了一组在受到不熟悉的刺激比如不寻常的气味和未知声音的录音时表现出轻微紧张的25名婴儿。他们发现这些婴儿比其他婴儿更可能在早秋怀孕，而早秋是他们的母亲分泌的melatonin--一种已知会影响一些大脑功能的荷尔蒙--因日照的减少而增加的季节。在今年早些时候所作的跟踪调查中，这些表现出紧张迹象的儿童--现在已经是十几岁--有一半以上认为自己害羞。显然，出生前melatonin的增加导致婴儿期的羞涩并且这种羞涩将延续至生命更晚的阶段。

提纲
1，25个婴儿的研究样本量太少，不能代表整体婴儿情况。
2，早秋并不能说明melatonin的分泌增加，应交代更详细。
3，母亲melatonin分泌增加怎么能引起婴儿害羞的性格，应详细说明。
4，一部分的婴儿变成青少年后仍然有害羞，并不能说明所有害羞婴儿最后仍害羞，更加不能说明这与melatonin有关系。

  In this argument, the writer's conclusion that increased levels of melatonin before birth cause shyness during infancy and this shyness continues into later life on the research of only 25 distressed infants ,which is not large enough samples, is ungrounded.
  First, as mentioned before, the situation of the only 25 infants in the study is insufficient to demonstrate the whole infants. Writer should observe more cases and do further research to come to his conclusion that the part of infants will represent the whole infants.
  Second, the argument lacks certain relationship between the increasing secretion of melatonin and the early autumn. The writer bases on the reason that because the daylight decreasing , so the melatonin of mother which thought to affect some brain functions will increase. The conclusion that the early autumn equals to the decreased daylight is unwarranted. If the writer doesn't give me more details about this ,I will not be convinced.
  Third ,even if there is increasing in the melatonin in mother, how does it shape the disposition of the infants? I can only know from the argument that the melatonin may affect some brain functions, but whether it will make infants be distressed is not clear. The arguer should demonstrate more reasonable evidence.
  Finally, the fact that more than half of these children who had shown signs of distress identified themselves as shy when they had become teenagers doesn’t means that all the distressed infants will definitely grow to shy
teenagers. The environment in the later life is more important in determining one’s characteristic. In this point, there is no certainly relationship between the increasing of melatonin and the later life shyness.
  In sum, there is no data available to convince us that the increased levels of melatonin in mother make the children shy and the shyness last for the later life. More practices and researches should be done.

[ 本帖最后由 ph粉丝 于 2009-1-19 08:52 编辑 ]