Power law of practice

It was first proposed as a psychological law by Snoddy (1928),[1] used by Crossman (1959)[2] in his study of a cigar roller in Cuba, and played an important part in the development of Cognitive Engineering by Card, Moran, & Newell (1983).

[3] Mechanisms that would explain the power law were popularized by Fitts and Posner (1967),[4] Newell and Rosenbloom (1981),[5] and Anderson (1982).

[6] However, subsequent research by Heathcote, Brown, and Mewhort suggests that the power function observed in learning curves that are averaged across participants is an artifact of aggregation.

Research by Logan suggests that the instance theory of automaticity can be used to explain why the power law is deemed an accurate portrayal of reaction time learning curves.

Anderson, Fincham, and Douglass looked at the relationship between practice and latency and people's ability to retain what they learned.