Argument53[jet 小组]第五次作业

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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.

In this argument, the arguer concludes that the increasing of melatonin before birth will cause shyness, which will continue into later life during infancy. To support this assertion, the arguer cites a research conducted thirteen years ago which studied a group of 25 infants and a follow-up study conducted earlier this year. In addition, the arguer assumes that it is melatonin makes them becomes shy. However, in my point of views, the arguer suffers several flaws as fallows.

First of all, the arguer incorrectly broadens shyness to embrace mild distress. Because the distress is a state of being in serious trouble or in mental or physical anguish while shyness means being nervous or embarrassed about meeting and speaking to other people. In the research, the babies showed signs of mild distress when exposed to unfamiliar stimuli such as an unusual odor or a tape recording of an unknown voice; however, it does not mean the babies will be shy when they meet people. It is possible that the babies just feel distress of the unfamiliar stimulus, when it comes to other people they may show an attitude of enthusiasm.

Even though we admit the arguer’s assumption that distress means shyness, however, whether 25 is an enough sample quantity for the arguer to come to his conclusion. It is mentioned in the group of 25 infants, they were more likely than other infants to have been conceived in early autumn. It is possible that nearly most infants may feel distress when they meet stimuli, but the samples the researchers chose are exactly the babies who were mostly born in early autumn. If the researchers choose more samples such as 500 babies, they may find their consequence based on these 25 infants is incorrect at all.

In addition, though melatonin mothers produced may have an effect on babies’ brain functions, no sufficient evidence indicates that it is melatonin that caused their shyness. Since the arguer does not show us the exact effect of melatonin, there exists a possibility that melatonin is a kind of hormone having an effect on other area of people’s brain which has no bearing to shyness. Moreover, in the course of pregnancy, mothers may produce other sort of hormone besides melatonin mentioned in the argument. Without ruling out other hormone’s influence on people’s shyness, the arguer cannot convince me on his assertion.

In summary, the arguer’s conclusion based on his assumption of the research seems logical, however, to make it more convincing, the arguer would have to provide more evidence concerning the difference between distress, the quantity of the sample and the other hormone.

[ 本帖最后由 cascade 于 2008-2-13 19:11 编辑 ]