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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 7, 2026

Portable Intermodal Preferential Looking (IPL): Investigating Language Comprehension in Typically Developing Toddlers and Young Children with Autism

Portable Intermodal Preferential Looking (IPL): Investigating Language Comprehension in Typically Developing Toddlers and Young Children with Autism

Published on: December 14, 2012

Gender Differences in Child Word Learning.

Margarita Kaushanskaya¹, Megan Gross, Milijana Buac

¹University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Learning and Individual Differences

|September 17, 2013

Summary

Girls show enhanced word learning compared to boys, particularly with familiar sounds and images. This suggests females may better utilize existing language knowledge when learning new words.

Area of Science:

Developmental Psychology
Cognitive Science
Linguistics

Background:

Prior research indicated women outperform men in specific word-learning tasks involving phonological familiarity.
Gender differences in cognitive tasks, including language processing, are an area of ongoing investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if gender differences in novel word learning observed in adults extend to children aged 5–7.
To examine the influence of phonological and referent familiarity on children's word learning and potential gender disparities.

Main Methods:

Children (5–7 years) learned novel words varying in phonological familiarity.
Referent familiarity was manipulated using familiar (animals) versus unfamiliar (aliens) pictures.
Retention was assessed using a forced-choice recognition task immediately post-learning.

Keywords:

gender differences phonology semantics word learning

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Measuring Statistical Learning Across Modalities and Domains in School-Aged Children Via an Online Platform and Neuroimaging Techniques

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Published on: June 30, 2020

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 7, 2026

Portable Intermodal Preferential Looking (IPL): Investigating Language Comprehension in Typically Developing Toddlers and Young Children with Autism

Portable Intermodal Preferential Looking (IPL): Investigating Language Comprehension in Typically Developing Toddlers and Young Children with Autism

Published on: December 14, 2012

Measuring Statistical Learning Across Modalities and Domains in School-Aged Children Via an Online Platform and Neuroimaging Techniques

Measuring Statistical Learning Across Modalities and Domains in School-Aged Children Via an Online Platform and Neuroimaging Techniques

Published on: June 30, 2020

Main Results:

Girls exhibited stronger effects of phonological and referent familiarity compared to boys.
Girls outperformed boys when learning phonologically-familiar words and words with familiar referents.
Boys did not show the same enhanced learning under conditions of familiarity.

Conclusions:

Findings suggest that girls, more than boys, leverage native-language phonological and semantic knowledge during novel word acquisition.
This highlights potential sex-based differences in the recruitment of linguistic knowledge for learning new vocabulary in early childhood.