argument53 为我所用第十三次作业

jenniferganUID: 2443583

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: 651          TIME: 00:39:30          DATE: 2008-4-7 17:47:13

According to the argument, the author claims that increased levels of melatonin before birth will cause shyness during infancy and the effect will continues onto later life. In my point of view, the author neglects several alternative explanations. A careful examination of the argument will reveal how groundless it is. I will discuss them in turn.

To begin with, the author gives a thirteen-years-ago study to show that his conclusion is right. Howver, there are many unconvincing cases should be examined. First, only twenty-five infants involved in the study is not a persuasive evidence to get the result. As twenty-five is a small data, it cannot stand for the most people. Perhaps, those who were not experimented in the study do not have the phenomenon even they were pregnant the world in early autumn. Second, as the author does not mention any conditions of the study to prove that the twenty-five infants really showed signs of mild distress when exposed t unfamiliar environment. Perhaps they were distressed by something else such as the hungry of feel tired to sleep rather than an unusual odor or a tape recording of an unknown voice. Third, the author does not provide any information about the signs. What signs indicate they were distressed? If they were smile which can also be illustrated as a kind of sign, how can they say they were distressed? Or they shook their hands just because they thought the voice is beautiful? As they could not say anything, some kind action of them cannot indicate that they were happy or sad unless they cried, maybe.

Even assuming the study I argued above is believable. There is of no indication that it is the birth time result the phenomenon of the infants. Maybe it is just a coincidence that they were conceived in early autumn. Maybe a lot of other infants also conceived in early autumn but they don't shoe the distress. Maybe other same things happened on these infants, for example, their mother ate some drugs which leaded to the result. The author does not eliminate other alternative explanations that can be the causes of mild distress.

Even it is the effect of the time they were pregnant, the author cannot convince me that it is melatonin result to the distress. Perhaps during early autumn, mothers will product other kind of hormone which influences their babies. Perhaps because the temperature takes action on the mothers makes them fell not better. So, the author should supply evidence to show that the effect is caused only by melatonin.

In addition, is the result of the follow-up study accurate? I don't think so. For one thing, the author does not offer any information about them during the thirteen years. It is a common sense that the environment of growth is also an important factors that influences the characteristics of children. Especially when they are in their teenagers which is the time a special hormone will product to accurate the growth of children. And, perhaps they the food they eat will do the effect. What's more, more than half of them were shy, which is a common distress that teenagers will come across.

Furthermore, the author is too presumptuous to say that the distress of the infants is shy. He or she does not show any evidence to prove that the sign of distress is shy as the infants cannot perform any sentences or meaningful actions.

To sum up, the argument is well-presented, but not thoroughly well-reasoned. It is too hasty to get to the conclusion that melatonin case the babies' shyness and the shyness will continues to their teenagers. To strengthen it, the author should give more detailed information of the h thirteen-years-ago study. And, he or she should rule out other alternatives for the effect of melatonin. What's more, a survey about shyness and other signs of distress should be done to give more convincing proofs.