What is a learning curve anyway?

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, the name of my blog is Kayla’s Learning Curve. For those of you unfamiliar with a learning curve, I will attempt to inform you of the basic ideas surrounding the theory.

Basically, a learning curve is the generally graphical representation of the progress of one’s learning. The graph is meant to show the mastery of a certain skill over a period of time. The curve represents the idea that the more a person practices something, the better they come at that skill. Generically speaking, practice makes perfect. The curve shows that the most significant gains in retention occur right after a concept is introduced. As time goes on, less and less new information is retained.

Hermann Ebbinghaus was the first person to describe the learning curve in 1885. He conducted a study in which he observed how long it took the average person to memorize a nonsense word. In analyzing the study, he found that the amount of time needed to memorize the word increased with the number of syllables in the word. This is where is came up with the graph representing his findings, what we now recognize as the learning curve.