A recent study of eighteen rhesus monkeys provides clues as to the effects of birth order on an individual's levels of stimulation. The study showed that in stimulating situations (such as an encounter with an unfamiliar monkey), firstborn infant monkeys produce up to twice as much of the hormone cortisol, which primes the body for increased activity levels, as do their younger siblings. Firstborn humans also produce relatively high levels of cortisol in stimulating situations (such as the return of a parent after an absence). The study also found that during pregnancy, first-time mother monkeys had higher levels of cortisol than did those who had had several offspring
Findings in the study has suggested that when provided with stimulating environment, monkey babies exhibited produced twice as much cortisol which typically primes the body for increased activity level. The article also suggests that similar behavior were present in human babies as well. However, before we can arrive at the conclusion whether these conclusions are valid its critical to see some of other parallel hypothesis which could weaken this one and could suggest other wise.
First off, the article suggests that study was conducted on 18 monkeys. This seems to be very small numbers and any statistician would argue that phenomenon observed here might not be statistically significant. So, if our of 18 monkey 5 were subjected to stimulating environment it can not be generalized that similar behavior would be observed on all of them. Also, the article does not mention if other conditions were kept neutral. E.g. how does a baby monkey respond to a stimulant also depends on mother's health, genetic predisposition, location, weather etc. The very fact that whether its mother's first child or subsequent impacts cortisol level further strengthens this doubt.
Also, this article does not clarify if the experiment tried differentiating between causality and correlation. Just because we have seen some phenomenon does not mean we know the cause of it as well. E.g. if we look at a sample of data it could suggest that every time I wear a red shirt there is tsunami in southern coast of India, that does not mean my wearing the red shirt is causing it. It simply means that given the sampled data there seems to be correlation between 2 events. Similarly its critical to find why would level of cortisol increase if a baby is subjected to stimulating environment.
Lastly, the article suggested these experiments were conducted on monkey and similar behavior was observed on human babies as well. However, we know for the fact that there are significant difference between species and its critical to assess the possibility that the experimental findings might not have same level of impact on all the sister species. There could be multiple factors which could further aleviate or deteriorate the impacts. The article does not address that
In conclusion its critical to do a more thorough analysis to better understand this complex behavior. Living being's biochemistry is fairly complex process and before arriving at any conclusion a detailed study of all the external factors such as environment, pre existing conditions, genetic desposition etc should be taken into account
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: ??? out of 6
Category: Poor Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 10 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 7 2
No. of Sentences: 18 15
No. of Words: 419 350
No. of Characters: 2139 1500
No. of Different Words: 213 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.524 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.105 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.749 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 155 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 131 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 83 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 48 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.278 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.278 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.778 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.318 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.318 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.098 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 474, Rule ID: OTHER_WISE_OTHERWISE[1]
Message: Did you mean 'otherwise'?
Suggestion: otherwise
...could weaken this one and could suggest other wise. First off, the article suggests that...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 212, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[4]
Message: “So , if” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...might not be statistically significant. So, if our of 18 monkey 5 were subjected to st...
^^^^^^
Line 2, column 631, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'impacts'' or 'impact's'?
Suggestion: impacts'; impact's
...r its mothers first child or subsequent impacts cortisol level further strengthens this...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 485, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Similarly,
...ems to be correlation between 2 events. Similarly its critical to find why would level of...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 110, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'beings'' or 'being's'?
Suggestion: beings'; being's
...nderstand this complex behavior. Living beings biochemistry is fairly complex process ...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, e.g., first, however, if, lastly, look, similarly, so, then, well, in conclusion, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 19.0 19.6327345309 97% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 12.9520958084 100% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 38.0 28.8173652695 132% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 40.0 55.5748502994 72% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 16.3942115768 67% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2177.0 2260.96107784 96% => OK
No of words: 419.0 441.139720559 95% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.19570405728 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.52432199235 4.56307096286 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.79687333311 2.78398813304 100% => OK
Unique words: 216.0 204.123752495 106% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.515513126492 0.468620217663 110% => OK
syllable_count: 682.2 705.55239521 97% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 19.7664670659 96% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 49.4562679311 57.8364921388 86% => OK
Chars per sentence: 114.578947368 119.503703932 96% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.0526315789 23.324526521 95% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.0 5.70786347227 88% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.67664670659 171% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.100849843871 0.218282227539 46% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0344370950706 0.0743258471296 46% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.050347838509 0.0701772020484 72% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0604602563383 0.128457276422 47% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0335899720328 0.0628817314937 53% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.1 14.3799401198 98% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 49.15 48.3550499002 102% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.197005988 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.88 12.5979740519 102% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.5 8.32208582834 102% => OK
difficult_words: 100.0 98.500998004 102% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.5 12.3882235529 93% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.