Argument53,13,酒香,nofeelings

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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 the argument, author states that the infants are affected by the unfamiliar stimuli but can not truly prove it, with some logic flaws and incomplete evidence. Then the statement about teenager problem also not true.

First and foremost, 25 infants, which is a little number, and thirteen years ago, which is a long time, can not illustrate a science phenomenon for sure. These babies may help author draw an limited conclusion, if any. Coincidence is main reason to make the number of survey invalid. As to thirteen years ago, babies may be different from now's, who are more well-cultivated than yesterday's. So the survey are not complete, then the later conclusion will be affected.


What's more, the daylight of the autumn may be increased or decreased, according to the whether condition of different area of world. If the babies are from Africa, in which daylight are almost always strong, then the suggestion of the author is failed. So the melatonin will not sure to be increased naturally because of unsureness of the daylight. Then those infants in the survey who show the sign of distress may not be caused by the unfamiliar stimuli of the decreased light. Actually, the light condition in the experiment is not steady. An other possibility is that after the long evolution of the humankinds, they may have already can accommodate this light condition. This is to say, the light condition are familiar for human being. And the light condition can not be account for the whole stimuli. Based on the unstable survey, there are some false inductions, this means mild distress can not be caused by the unfamiliar stimuli.


Last but not the least, sign of distress does not mean the shyness, and this shyness of teenagers can not be the result of the infants' continuation. There are many kinds of the distress such as shyness, melocholy and grumpiness, we should not define it as shyness uncarefully. And the distresses of the teenagers are not sure caused by the time before birth, perhaps caused by some sad issues. So it is actually not clear to say 'increased levels of melatonin before birth cause shyness during infancy and this shyness continues into later life'.

In sum, author should make a survey that contains almost whole different part of the world with enough number. And confine other elements in the survey to test the relation between decreased light and distressed infants. Then he or she should try some other stimuli and make these stimulus unchanged during the babies growth stage. After all these be done, the conclusion can be strictly drawn.