Self-study
A study comparing infant care revealed that Support the amount of stimulation babies receive affects their sleep. ██ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ████ █ ████ ███████████ ███████ ███████ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ███ ███ ████ █████ ████ █ ████ ███████████ ████████ █████ █████ █████ █ ████ █████████ ████ ██ █ ███████ ████████████ ███████ █████ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████████ █████ ██████ ████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that parents should reduce the amount of stimulation that their babies receive. The author references a study in which babies with a less stimulating daytime routine slept an average of two hours more each day compared to babies with a more stimulating daytime routine. To connect this study to the conclusion, the author claims that sleep is very important for children’s development.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that sleeping more is better for babies––what if there is a point at which too much sleep becomes detrimental? Also, the author assumes that the studies were conducted in a way that allows their results to be applied to babies in general. The author also assumes that sleep would be better for babies than the stimulation that is being sacrificed in order to enhance their sleep.
1.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
Babies' muscular coordination ██ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███████████ ████ ████████
The argument connects stimulation to sleep, and assumes that more sleep is better for babies. Muscular coordination being unaffected by stimulation is unrelated to the argument.
b
Babies with less ███████████ ████████ ███████ ███ █████ █████ ██████ ███ ████
Whether the sleep occurred during the day or at night is not relevant to the argument; the argument only discusses average sleep time.
c
Studies showed no ███████████ ███████ ███████████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ █████ █████ ██ ███ ██ ██████
The argument is about infants and discusses a study on six month old babies. Facts about children three years old and older is not relevant to the argument.
d
The babies who ███ █ ████ ███████████ ███████ ██████ ██████ ██ ██ ███████ █████
We don’t know anything about the weight gain of babies with a more stimulating routine. (D) just gives a separate fact about an unrelated factor for one of the two groups of babies, so this does not weaken the judgement made in the argument.
e
The stimulation that ██████ ███████ █████ ████ ██ ███████ ███████████████
(E) introduces an aspect of net effect. (E) shows that babies with a less stimulating daytime routine may be missing out on intellectual development. This weakens the argument because it provides a reason that a more stimulating daytime routine may be beneficial.