Show & Tell: Phase 33.4 CurriculumScheduler — Intelligent task sequencing

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Show & Tell: Phase 33.4 — CurriculumScheduler

What it does

The CurriculumScheduler optimizes the order in which tasks are presented during continual learning. Drawing on curriculum learning theory (Bengio et al., 2009) and spaced repetition research, it maximizes forward transfer while minimizing catastrophic forgetting through intelligent task sequencing.

Key features demonstrated

• Transfer-optimal ordering — sequence tasks to maximize cumulative forward transfer using a task similarity graph
• Spaced repetition — Leitner system adaptation schedules reviews at exponentially increasing intervals
• Anti-curriculum detection — identifies task orderings that cause excessive negative backward transfer
• Dynamic reordering — adjusts remaining schedule based on observed transfer during training
• Interleaving — mixes current and previous task data within epochs for better generalization

Architecture highlights

Task Pool                    CurriculumScheduler
┌──────────┐                ┌──────────────────────┐
│ Task A   │──┐             │  Task Similarity     │
│ Task B   │──┤             │  Graph               │
│ Task C   │──┤──────────►  │     ┌───┐            │
│ Task D   │──┤             │  A──┤0.8├──B         │
│ Task E   │──┘             │     └───┘            │
└──────────┘                │  ↓ greedy chain       │
                            │  A → B → D → C → E   │
                            │                      │
                            │  + Spaced repetition  │
                            │  A: review at +1,+3,+7│
                            │  B: review at +1,+3   │
                            └──────────┬───────────┘
                                       ↓
                             Ordered TaskSchedule

Benchmarks (target)

Benchmark	Metric	Target
Transfer-optimal vs random	Avg accuracy improvement	>15%
Spaced repetition	Retention after 20 tasks	>95%
Anti-curriculum detection	Precision on harmful pairs	>90%
Dynamic reordering	Mid-sequence improvement	>10% vs fixed

References

• Issue: Phase 33.4 — CurriculumScheduler: Intelligent task sequencing for lifelong learning #694
• Planning: Phase 33 Planning — Continual Learning & Catastrophic Forgetting Prevention #690
• Bengio et al. (2009), Graves et al. (2017), Weinshall et al. (2018)