A prelinguistic infant extensively babbles using canonical syllable reduplication (e.g., 'dadada'). If caregivers suddenly cease all contingent responses (smiles, echoing) to these babbling sounds, which consequence follows?

💡 Explanation

Babbling complexity temporarily decreases because contingent social feedback reinforces the infant's vocalizations, a mechanism of operant conditioning driving phonetic exploration. Therefore, removing this feedback leads to reduced vocal experimentation, rather than accelerated vocabulary or syntax, under these conditions.

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