The Variation Principle

Although I have not yet developed a neat and comprehensive list of "20 Rules of Procedural Learning" (cf. supermemo.com) I have derived a couple of important principles. The first and most important one is the topic of this blog.

Simply put, the variation principle states that it is always easiest to learn a new skill when it is but a slight variation on an old skill. Here, an "old skill" is one that you can already perform, while a "new skill" is the one that you are trying to learn. In other words, if you can already perform something very similar to the new skill, it is a piece of cake to progress to the next level. Like the minimum information principle it may seem obvious at first but it must it be used every time, and every case where it is forgotten will only bring trouble. In fact, the variation principle is the minimum information principle in the context of procedural learning. This will become more clear when I illustrate how to incrementally learn a procedure, later on.

The use of the variation principle as a fundamental rule in procedural learning is already widespread. For example, for the teaching of the violin several prolific composers have written an exhuastive list of studies and exercises that slowly and methodically progress from the most basic techniques to the most complex. Once you can perform one of these exercises you move on to the next one, which is almost the same but with a slight complication added in. In this way, almost every professional classical violinist has learned the basic technique of the instrument (excluding special schools such as Suzuki's, although they also use the variation principle).

Other examples are:

• Video games (esp. RPG) often require the player to master a few simple skills, before adding other skills to the mix
• In any sport, coaches well know that training of skills is not as simple as just playing the game (e.g. a basketball match) enough times. The difficult skills need to be extracted and trained in isolation, in various different circumstances and positions, before they can be integrated into the game
• Learner drivers frequently have little to no sense of direction, because their minds are so busily engaged on the technical skills of driving (esp. in manual cars!). Only once they have learned basic skills, can they add the extra layer of complexity by also navigating.

If you think about every skill you are master of, you will clearly see that during your training (even if it was informal) you progressed through a series of stages, starting from very basic technique and then adding complications to the mix. The smaller the complications at each stage, the easier it was to move on to the next level.

In a practical sense, the variation principle provides a lot of guidance as to how we should structure our training. It tells us that we should design a gentle "slope" of exercises that connect our current skill level with our desired skill level, and only move on to higher levels when we can successfully execute lower levels.

In the following post I will outline my main method of procedural learning, which is based on the variation principle.