ADVERTISEMENTS:
After reading this article you will learn about the learning curve with the help of diagram.
One of the questions which attracted the attention of learning theories is to study the course of the learning process. They were interested in answering general questions such as the following. Does learning progress at a uniform rate through out the period of learning? Does equal amount of practice at various stages of the learning process result in equal amount of learning?
To find answers to such questions psychologists carried out elaborate experiments on the learning of different tasks and arrived at what is familiarly known as the learning curve.
A study of the above curve leads us to the following inferences which may answer the questions raised above.
The curve reveals the following:
(a) Learning does not progress at a uniform rate and that the rate of learning varies during the course of learning. The rate of learning is much higher in the initial stages and gradually decreases. This pattern of decrease in the amount learnt as the period of learning increases is known as the principle of diminishing returns.
(b) This means that even though the time duration and amount of practice remain the same, the amount of learning during a particular time interval and a fixed amount of practice is not always the same throughout the learning process. The amount learnt is more per unit time in the initial stages compared to the later stages.
(c) If one observes the curve, it is clear that there are certain stages or periods in the learning effort, where no learning takes place. Such a stage is called the plateau. The learning curve is flat at these points. Why does this happen? There have been many suggested answers to this question.
One answer is that it is due to the satiation of the nervous system. The second answer is that it is due to fatigue and if a rest period is given then there will be an increase in the rate of learning. The finding that learning is more effective under conditions of spaced learning, where the period of learning effort or practice is intercepted by a few rest intervals, lends some credence to this argument.
Other suggested answers are that there is a decrease in the level of motivation; there is a need for changing the learning strategies, etc. The best answer, however, appears to be that none of the above answers can by itself singly explain the phenomenon of plateau totally. Perhaps all the above factors contribute to this phenomenon. The fact that plateaus are temporary and that learning again resumes after sometime suggests this.
An interesting finding, has been that learning is more effective under conditions where the individual is allowed some breaks at various stages, and further that this effort persists even if the individual does not take rest and engages in some other activities, shows that a mere “fatigue” explanation is not satisfactory.
It is quite possible, that when an individual learns under conditions where intervals are introduced and he is allowed to engage in any activity of his interest during these intervals, he can come back to the original learning task with a renewed motivation. Thus, plateaus appear to result from a number of factors.