East Carolina University
Department of
Psychology
What is a "Steep" Learning Curve?
A learning curve is a plot of performance (on the ordinate) versus effort or time put into learning the task (on the abscissa). Here is a hypothetical example:
The blue curve is steep -- the increase in performance per unit time is great. In other words, the task is quickly learned, with little effort.
The red curve is not so steep -- the increase in performance per unit time is much less. In other words, the task is difficult to learn, taking greater effort and time.
When I pointed this out to the chair of our department, she suggested that learning psychologists should change the way they measure performance so that higher scores indicate lower performance.
Contact Information for the Webmaster,
Dr. Karl L. Wuensch
This page most recently revised on 13-June-2019.