Argument53 【0906G 文以载道三月四月小组】第二周第一次作业 by 过期的蛋糕

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Argument53
Thirteenyears ago, researchers studied a group of 25 infants who showed signsof mild distress when exposed to unfamiliar stimuli such as an unusualodor or a tape recording of an unknown voice. They discovered thatthese infants were more likely than other infants to have beenconceived in early autumn, a time when their mothers' production ofmelatonin-a hormone known to affect some brain functions-wouldnaturally increase in response to decreased daylight. In a follow-upstudy conducted earlier this year, more than half of these children-nowteenagers-who had shown signs of distress identified themselves as shy.Clearly, increased levels of melatonin before birth cause shynessduring 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。the level of M与shyness的因果关系。shyness可以由很多原因产生。
2。study本身不具说服力。25个infants显然太少。而且对不明刺激反应与shyness是两个不同的概念。

正文
By providing a study with a group of 25 infants who showed slight distress when exposed to unfamiliar stimuli, the author conclude that increased level of melationin before birth cause shyness during infancy and this shyness continues into later life, since these infants are more likely to have been conceived in early fall, when their mother's production of melatonin increased due to decreased daylight. At first glance, it seems reasonable.

However, the author overlooks other possible alternatives to the infants' shyness. Such alternatives include mothers' health condition, eat and work habits during pregnancy period, or mothers' own personality. For instance, It is entirely possible that an infant of a gloomy mother is more likely to be shy than one whose mother is out-going. In addition, the infants’ shyness might be a result of fathers' gene, which has nothing to do with mothers. Thus, the mere fact of the time when these 25 infants have been conceived with regard to their mother's production of melatonin is insufficient to prove the relationship between infants' shyness and melationin.

And the shyness in the later life of these infants has much more other possible explanations rather than the amount of melationin in their mothers' bodies when they are conceived. Perhaps the child had an unhappy childhood, or experienced some certain accident. Such kind of situation can all lead to a person's shyness. So, without consider and eliminate these and other possible reasons why half of these children are shy when they grow up, I can not be persuaded that this is due to the level of melatinonin before birth.

The study itself also contains logical flaws. 25 infants are obviously too limit to be representative of all infants. More important, the researchers failed to define shyness exactly. Distress in response to unfamiliar stimuli could be understood as shyness, but also, it could be regarded as sensitivity, which means they are more likely to notice distraction occurring around. Or perhaps, the distress is only a kind of physical reaction. In that case, the entire study is meaningless to illustrate the causes of shyness. Therefore, to be more convincing, this study must select more samples from various areas and provide an exact definition of shyness.

Overall, the reason behind shyness during infancy and their later life seems somewhat well presented. However, before the final conclusion is made, the author should consider all other possible explanations and make necessary improvement of the study.



[ 本帖最后由 过期的蛋糕 于 2009-1-18 21:04 编辑 ]

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你们怎么发重了，到底应该谁发？