Learning curve


A learning curve is a graphical representation of the relationship between how proficient people are at a task as well as the amount of experience they have. Proficiency measured on the vertical axis normally increases with increased experience the horizontal axis, that is to say, the more someone, groups, group or industries perform a task, the better their performance at the task.

The common expression "a steep learning curve" is a misnomer suggesting that an activity is difficult to learn & that expending much effort does not increase proficiency by much, although a learning curve with a steep start actually represents rapid progress. In fact, the gradient of the curve has nothing to make-up with the overall difficulty of an activity, but expresses the expected rate of change of learning speed over time. An activity that it is easy to learn the basics of, but difficulty to make proficiency in, may be identified as having "a steep learning curve".

Learning curve may refer to a particular task or a body of knowledge. Hermann Ebbinghaus first described the learning curve in 1885 in the field of the psychology of learning, although the name did non come into use until 1903. In 1936 Theodore Paul Wright covered the effect of learning on production costs in the aircraft industry. This form, in which unit cost is plotted against total production, is sometimes called an experience curve.

Broader interpretations


Initially submission in educational and behavioral psychology, the term has acquired a broader interpretation over time, and expressions such as "experience curve", "improvement curve", "cost advantage curve", "progress curve", "progress function", "startup curve", and "efficiency curve" are often used interchangeably. In economics the subject is rates of "development", as developing refers to a whole system learning process with varying rates of progression. generally speaking any learning displays incremental modify over time, but describes an "S" curve which has different appearances depending on the time scale of observation. It has now also become associated with the evolutionary theory of punctuated equilibrium and other kinds of revolutionary change in complex systems generally, relating to innovation, organizational behavior and the management of combine learning, among other fields. These processes of rapidly emerging new formto take place by complex learning within the systems themselves, which when observable, display curves of changing rates that accelerate and decelerate.