Editing Learning curve (section)

==In psychology==
[[File:Über das Gedächtnis. Untersuchungen zur experimentellen Psychologie, Fig 2.png|thumb|Figure 2 from Ebbinghaus' ''Über das Gedächtnis''. Ebbinghaus ran a series of 92 tests. In each test, he gave the subject 8 blocks of 13 random syllables each, and plotted the average time taken for the subject to memorize the block.]]
[[File:Über_das_Gedächtnis._Untersuchungen_zur_experimentellen_Psychologie,_Fig_4.png|thumb|Figure 4 from ''Über das Gedächtnis''. The same test with 9 blocks of 12 syllables each. This shows an oscillating pattern.]]
Hermann Ebbinghaus' memory tests, published in 1885, involved memorizing series of [[nonsense syllable]]s, and recording the success over a number of trials. The translation does not use the term 'learning curve' — but he presents diagrams of learning against trial number. He also notes that the score can decrease, or even oscillate.<ref name="ebbing_book"/><ref name="zimmer" /><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Ebbinghaus/wozniak.htm |title=Classics in the History of Psychology – Introduction to Ebbinghaus (1885/1913) by R. H. Wozniak |website=psychclassics.yorku.ca}}</ref>

The first known use of the term 'learning curve' is from 1903: "Bryan and Harter (6) found in their study of the acquisition of the telegraphic language a learning curve which had the rapid rise at the beginning followed by a period of slower learning, and was thus convex to the vertical axis."<ref name="books.google.com"/><ref name="zimmer" />

Psychologist Arthur Bills gave a more detailed description of learning curves in 1934. He also discussed the properties of different types of learning curves, such as negative acceleration, positive acceleration, plateaus, and [[ogive]] curves.<ref>Bills, A.G. (1934). ''General experimental psychology''. Longmans Psychology Series. pp. 192–215. New York: Longmans, Green and Co.</ref>