Learning Curve (Power Law of Practice)

The learning curve models how performance improves predictably as cumulative experience accumulates. Formalized by Theodore Wright in 1936 using aircraft manufacturing data, it expresses the relationship between the number of practice trials (or production units) and the time or cost per unit as a power-law function. It is widely applied in educational psychology, industrial engineering, health professions training, and human factors research whenever repeated task execution is the mechanism of skill acquisition.