Variation has a few different meanings in the world of learning and pedagogy. A classic example is that if you want to become proficient at three-foot putts in golf, you are better off employing variation by practicing a mixture of two- and four-foot putts than focusing all of your practice on three-foot putts.

Study practices, like varying the location, time of day, and contexts of when and where you study can build more associative memories.

Variation is a fantastic strategy for improving the encoding of learned material by creating more crosslinks and associations that render memories more retrievable.

Dual coding, learning something with two forms of input such as text and imagery, is a form of variation.

Giraffes have varying and unique patterns of their appearance. Not only that. They are actually four different species.

So, variation is fundamentally a tool for creating more associations between your memories.