#1 - A study comparing infant care revealed that the amount of stimulation babies receive affects

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Weaken, Cause and Effect. The correct answer choice is (E).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice.

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[RottenPJ]

Since there is no explanation here, I will take the liberty of offering my interpretation of the question and each of the answer choices.

This study is comparing infant care with stimulating vs less stimulating routines, arguing that a less stimulating routine leads to more sleep which is important for the child's development. Thus, less stimulation is better than more stimulation for babies.

We are to choose the answer that MOST weakens the argument.

A) Just because something unrelated is "unaffected" does nothing to reject the conclusion at hand, stimulation for babies should be reduced since it leads to more sleep.

B) If this said babies with more stimulating routines, this would indeed be a weakener but since it says babies with less stimulating routines, it just becomes irrelevant and does not invalidate or weaken the conclusion.

C) If children were 3 years of age and older, realistically they would not be babies.

D) This says nothing about babies who had more stimulation in comparison, so no benefit of one over the other is illustrated here.

E) CORRECT ANSWER - If the stimulation babies receive is also important for their development, we cannot say that reducing stimulation will result in enhanced development for the babies. This successfully weakens the argument and is the correct answer.