learning curve

learning curve
    n 1: a graph showing the rate of learning (especially a graph
         showing the amount recalled as a function of the number of
         attempts to recall)
    

learning curve

   <jargon> A graph showing some measure of the cost of
   performing some action against the number of times it has been
   performed.  The term probably entered engineering via the
   aircraft industry in the 1930s, where it was used to describe
   plots showing the cost of making some particular design of
   aeroplane against the number of units made.

   The term is also used in psychology to mean a graph showing
   some measure of something learned against the number of
   trials.  The psychology graphs normally slope upward whereas
   the manufacturing ones normally slope downward but they are
   both usually steep to start with and then level out.

   {Marketroids} often misuse the term to mean the amount of time
   it takes to learn to use something ("reduce the learning
   curve") or the ease of learning it ("easy learning curve").
   The phrase "steep learning curve" is sometimes used
   incorrectly to mean "hard to learn" whereas of course it
   implies rapid learning.

   Engineering
   
(http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV47-68-85-1942_STO61762,00.html).

   Psychology
   (http://sun.science.wayne.edu/~wpoff/cor/mem/opereinf.html).

   (2002-01-22)