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Updated: Jul 17, 2026

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) of Wernicke's and Broca's Areas in Studies of Language Learning and Word Acquisition
Published on: July 13, 2019
Acquisition of early words from single-word and sentential contexts
Sandra E Trehub1, Tali Shenfield
1Department of Psychology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Canada. sandra.trehub@utoronto.ca
Abstract:
Toddlers 15 and 18 months of age were exposed to audiovisual recordings of two novel words paired with novel toys. The words were presented in familiar sentence frames or in isolation. Linguistic context had a greater effect on younger than on older infants. Specifically, 15-month-old boys exhibited successful learning only in the context of single words, and 15-month-old girls did so only for words presented in sentences. Older infants acquired the new words from both contexts, and they learned more rapidly than younger infants. Receptive and expressive vocabulary made no independent contribution to performance.
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