Psychology researchers observed that parents feel emotion while singing to their infants. The researchers hypothesized that this emotion noticeably affects the sound of the singing. To test this hypothesis the parents were recorded while singing to their infants and while singing with no infant present. They were instructed to make the two renditions as similar as possible. These recordings were then played for psychologists who had not observed the recordings being made. For 80 percent of the recordings, these psychologists were able to correctly identify, by listening alone, which recordings were of parents singing to their children. The researchers concluded that their hypothesis was correct.
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The researchers conclude that they were correct in their hypothesis that the emotion parents feel when singing to their infants noticeably affects how that singing sounds. This is supported by the researchers’ observations that psychologists were usually able to identify by sound whether recordings of parents singing were made with or without their infant present.
Notable Assumptions
The researchers assume that the sound of the recordings was not influenced by factors other than the presence of an infant. The researchers also assume that the psychologists had no other way of knowing in advance which recordings were made with an infant present.
A
A separate study by the same researchers found that parents feel more emotion when singing to their own children than when singing to other children.
This is irrelevant, since the researchers only claim that parents’ emotion when singing to their children affects the sound of the singing. The relative amount of emotion felt when singing to different audiences doesn’t affect that claim.
B
Some, but not all, of the parents in the study realized that their song renditions were being recorded.
This isn’t relevant, because the psychologists were comparing recordings of the same parents singing with and without their children present. Any difference caused by being aware of the recording would affect both samples, so shouldn’t change the result.
C
Parents displayed little emotion when singing with no child or adult present.
The researchers don’t make any claims about emotion displayed by parents when singing in any other case than to their child, only that the emotion felt when parents are singing to their child noticeably affects the sound of their singing.
D
When a person feels emotion, that emotion provokes involuntary physiological responses that affect the vocal cords and lungs.
This strengthens by providing an mechanism to support the hypothesis. If we know how emotion can noticeably affect the sound of singing, it’s more plausible that results are truly due to parents’ emotion and not some other factor.
E
Most of the parents who participated in the study believed that the emotion they felt while singing to their infants affected their singing.
The researchers’ hypothesis doesn’t depend on the parents’ beliefs, only whether that is truly the case, so this is irrelevant. If anything, parents’ beliefs could lead them to sing differently, which could even weaken the hypothesis that emotion led to the differences.
Young: But Haynes inspects significantly more than half the appliances we sell each year.
Young provides more information (Haynes inspected more than 50% of all appliances) that casts doubt on this unspoken assumption.