@ARTICLE {,
AUTHOR = "J. Shrager and T. Hogg and B. A. Huberman",
TITLE = "A Graph-Dynamic Model of the Power Law of Practice and the Problem-Solving Fan-Effect",
JOURNAL = "Science",
VOLUME = "242",
NUMBER = "4877",
PAGES = "414-416",
YEAR = "1988"}
Abstract
Numerous human learning phenomena have been observed and captured by
individual laws, but no unified theory of learning has succeeded in
accounting for these observations. A theory and model are proposed that
account for two of these phenomena: the power law of practice and the
problem-solving fan-effect. The power law of practice states that the speed
of performance of a task will improve as a power of the number of times
that the task is performed. The power law resulting from two sorts of
problem-solving changes, addition of operators to the problem-space graph
and alterations in the decision procedure used to decide which operator
to apply at a particular state, is empirically demonstrated. The model
provides an analytic account for both of these sources of the power law.
The model also predicts a problem-solving fan-effect, slowdown during practice
caused by an increase in the difficulty of making useful decisions between
possible paths, which is also found empirically.