I'm currently taking an AI class where we covered reinforcement learning--I thought it was one of the coolest topics in a class full of interesting ideas.

The class is taught by one of the most popular CS professors here, and the lectures are available on Youtube. The first of two lectures about RL is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ztxHnR0Hss&list=PL9CBFBB...

If you have some time, you should definitely watch it--it is much clearer than just reading some slides. It would help to know what a "Markove Decision Process" is, but they're not very complicated.

This seems to be related to machine learning. I was hoping for something about human language learning.

What do you mean for human language learning? Like the process to learn new foreign languages?

So, Zen Habits had a post about learn foreign languages, http://zenhabits.net/fluent/.

There is a method of learning foreign languages, usually by help of computer software, where repetitions are spaced at certain intervals intended to maximize the memorization effect. I'm interested in learning more about this, but the info is sparse.

You mean Spaced Repetition Systems like Anki, right? There isn't much research beyond "yeah, they work."

What are you exactly looking for?

I think the idea was originally popularized by Supermemo, and there are plenty of infos on the algorithms and rationale used in it http://www.supermemo.com/english/algsm11.htm