A) Provide an Informal Analysis of the Following Passage; or

question 58

Essay

A) Provide an informal analysis of the following passage; or
B) in analyzing the passage, do the following:
a. Identify the causal hypothesis at issue.
b. Identify what kind of study it is.
c. Describe the control and experimental groups.
d. State the difference in effect (or cause) between control and experimental groups.
e. Identify any problems in either the study or the report of it, including but not necessarily limited to uncontrolled variables.
f. State the conclusion you think is warranted by the report.
Tiffany Field, a psychologist at the University of Miami Medical School, believes that it is good for premature babies to be given short sessions of body stroking and limb movement. She and her fellow researchers studied forty premature babies in a transitional-care nursery. Although the infants were stable enough to be released from the intensive care unit and none needed extra oxygen or intravenous feedings, they had required an average of twenty days of intensive care, and the heaviest among them was under four pounds. Their average age at birth was thirty-one weeks. Half the group was randomly chosen to receive standardized touch and movement stimulation for three fifteen-minute periods per day over ten consecutive weekdays. Treated infants averaged a 47 percent greater weight gain per day, even though they had the same number of feedings and the same level of calorie intake as did the control babies. The stimulated group also was awake and physically active a greater percentage of the time.
"Since the experimental kids were more active, their weight gain was not due to greater energy conservation," Field points out. Infants in the treatment group also outdistanced controls on a number of behavioral measures, and they were hospitalized on the average six days fewer than infants in the control group.
-Adapted from Bruce Bower, Science News

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Definitions:

Alleged Fact

A claim or assertion that something is the case, typically in a legal context, without having been proven.

Tort Law

A body of law that addresses and provides remedies for civil wrongs not arising out of contractual obligations.

Criminal Penalties

Sanctions imposed by a court for violations of criminal laws, which can include fines, imprisonment, or other forms of punishment.

Retaliation

The act of taking adverse action against someone as a response to a complaint or misconduct reporting, particularly in the workplace.