Anne has got this correct. For a very long time, this is exactly how we've approached end-user support. In some ways, it goes back a couple of thousand years: Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for life.
From the end-user support perspective, we like to reinforce foundational concepts (cut, paste, open, save, etc.). This has become easier over the years as the Windows menu structure and function bundling has become almost ubiquitous. I've seen students and staff move from the Office suite to the OpenOffice.org suite without a blip. Validation.
The concept strums up previous strands I've followed in search of a universal heuristic -- a set of core concepts or "knowledges" that all users, writers, developers, etc. share. Maybe it's as simple as computer literacy. In fact, why does it have to be a complicated theory laden concept? Teach people the basics really well and improve their chances to quickly develop higher level skills on that sound foundation.
I'm sure there's an education scholar out there laughing.
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