Definition
In learning theory, the capacity of a person to perform a particular behavior or skill in a given situation, whether or not that behavior is actually being demonstrated at the moment. Learning is inferred from a change in behavior potential, not solely from observed performance.
Plain English
What a learner is now able to do, even when they aren't doing it right now. If training has changed what they could do given the chance, learning has occurred.
Context Anchor
Seen in aviation instructor training when discussing what learning is and how an instructor can tell whether training has changed what a student can do.
Derivation
From 'behavior' (how a person acts) and 'potential' (capacity that exists but may not yet be used). Together: an existing ability to act in a certain way when the situation calls for it.
Why Pilots Care
Instructors need to understand that a student may have learned something even if they don't perform it on demand in a given lesson, and conversely that a single correct performance doesn't always prove lasting learning. Judging behavior potential — not just one flight — is how a CFI decides whether a student is genuinely ready.
Grounding Statement
A student may not be using a skill every second, but good training changes what the student is ready and able to do when that skill is needed.
Intuition Check
Behavior potential does not mean a student's attitude, personality, or general promise. Here it means the learned ability to act correctly when the situation comes up.
Example Sentence 1
After several lessons on crosswind landings, the student's behavior potential had clearly changed — she could now make the correct control inputs whenever conditions required them.
Example Sentence 2
Repeated pattern work raises behavior potential for smooth traffic pattern entries and landings.