Computer-based, criterion-referenced testing can be a humanizing process if it is used for diagnostic and remedial purposes in helping individual students to attain their maximum levels of achievement. The procedure is based upon the proposition that certain classroom situations involving cognitive acquisition, when tested at equally spaced time intervals, result in a graph that may be considered a non-stationary time series. For each individual, a computer analysis of succeeding scores can establish a unique learning curve with specified stochastic limits. The teacher can make use of computer printouts a) to allow most of the students to proceed with regular materials, b) to adjust the programs of pupils who fall back of their previously demonstrated ability levels, and c) to establish new horizons for those who exceed their established curves of learning. (Author/PB)