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The staircase method has been widely used in measuring perceptual learning. Recently, Zhao et al (2017) developed the quick CD method and applied it to measure the trial-by-trial time course of learning. Here, we evaluate the performance of the staircase and quick CD methods. An observer with an exponential learning curve (time constant= 50 trials) in a 2AFC task was simulated. A 3-up/1 down staircase with six step sizes (1%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 30%, and 60% increase or decrease of contrast) and the quick CD were used to estimate the contrast threshold of the simulated observer, each starting from five different contrasts (+ 50%,+ 25%, 0,-25%, and-50% from the true threshold), with 400 trials in each of 1000 simulated runs. Thresholds were estimated every 80 trials. We found that:(1) The average absolute bias (AAB) of the trial-by-trial threshold estimates from quick CD was 0.016, with an average standard …