- published: 25 Sep 2015
- views: 904231
A learning curve is a graphical representation of the changing rate of learning (in the average person) for a given activity or tool. Typically, the increase in retention of information is sharpest after the initial attempts, and then gradually evens out, meaning that less and less new information is retained after each repetition.
The learning curve can also represent at a glance the initial difficulty of learning something and, to an extent, how much there is to learn after initial familiarity. For example, the Windows program Notepad is extremely simple to learn, but offers little after this. On the other extreme is the UNIX terminal editor Vim, which is difficult to learn, but offers a wide array of features to master after the user has figured out how to work it. It is possible for something to be easy to learn, but difficult to master or hard to learn with little beyond this.[citation needed]
The first person to describe the learning curve was Hermann Ebbinghaus in 1885. He found that the time required to memorize a nonsense word increased sharply as the number of syllables increased. Psychologist Arthur Bills gave a more detailed description of learning curves in 1934. He also discussed the properties of different types of learning curves, such as negative acceleration, positive acceleration, plateaus, and ogive curves. In 1936, Theodore Paul Wright described the effect of learning on labor productivity in the aircraft industry and proposed a mathematical model of the learning curve.
I had a good dream
We built a home.
It was far from perfect,
But we made it our own.
We lived a good life,
We gave and we borrowed.
It was far from perfect,
But we made it our own.
When everything around us changed, we felt okay.
No learning curve could ever bend us too far out of shape.
When we took one step forward, and five steps behind,
We were still more than able to walk a straight line.
We had a white picket fence in the front yard,
Where our grass was plenty green.
Every window in our house
Welcomed in the sun's company.
We had hardwood floors and unlocked doors,
Our glass was plenty full.
Though our bills were only barely met,
Our hearts were plenty whole.
When everything around us changed, we felt okay.
No learning curve could ever bend us too far out of shape.
When darkness was the price of light, we weren't afraid.
For the time we've spent was more than worth
Any interest that we've paid.
We lived a good life, a good life,
When my eyes were closed.
Though the question marks were all the same
And the burdens never left,
We gambled everything we loved,
As though there was some kind of safety net.
When everything around us changed, we felt okay.
No learning curve could ever bend us too far out of shape.
When darkness was the price of light, we weren't afraid.
For the time we've spent was more than worth
Any interest that we've paid.
And when my good dream
Came to an end,