"A mind map harnesses the full range of cortical skills—word, image, number, logic, rhythm, color, and spatial awareness - in a single, uniquely powerful technique. In doing so, it gives you the freedom to roam the infinite expanse of your brain." (Tony Buzan, Barry Buzan, "The Mind Map Book: How to Use Radiant Thinking to Maximize Your Brain's Untapped Potential", 1996)
"Delay time, the time between causes and their impacts, can highly influence systems. Yet the concept of delayed effect is often missed in our impatient society, and when it is recognized, it’s almost always underestimated. Such oversight and devaluation can lead to poor decision making as well as poor problem solving, for decisions often have consequences that don’t show up until years later. Fortunately, mind mapping, fishbone diagrams, and creativity/brainstorming tools can be quite useful here." (Stephen G Haines, "The Manager's Pocket Guide to Strategic and Business Planning", 1998)
"An effective mind map is one that works for you and therefore it is your tailoring and your emphasis, images, colours, codes and style that will determine its effectiveness. Try to develop the habit of taking down all your notes in mind map format. If you are required to give presentations, do this from a mind map. When you are at meetings, take down the minutes in mind map layout and just notice the difference in your ability to retain exactly what happened at that meeting and compare it with your usual logical/analytical method of recording minutes." (Peter F Haddon, Mastering Personal and Interpersonal Skills, 1999)
"Mind mapping is a technique whereby information is summarised in a form of pictorial representation which depends very much on the creativity of the individual involved. The idea is that when information is pictured in colourful word associations backed up by sketches or even stick drawings of the key words, it is far more easily remembered, much like when looking at a photograph you can recall in detail the happenings that led up to and followed the incident." (Peter F Haddon, Mastering Personal and Interpersonal Skills, 1999)
"Knowledge maps are node-link representations in which ideas are located in nodes and connected to other related ideas through a series of labeled links. They differ from other similar representations such as mind maps, concept maps, and graphic organizers in the deliberate use of a common set of labeled links that connect ideas. Some links are domain specific (e.g., function is very useful for some topic domains...) whereas other links (e.g., part) are more broadly used. Links have arrowheads to indicate the direction of the relationship between ideas." (Angela M O’Donnell et al, "Knowledge Maps as Scaffolds for Cognitive Processing", Educational Psychology Review Vol. 14 (1), 2002)
"Mind Mapping uses the full range of the brain's abilities, placing an image in the center of the page in order to facilitate memorization and the creative generation of ideas, and subsequently branches out in associative networks that mirror externally the brain's internal structures. By using this approach, the preparation of speeches can be reduced in time from days to minutes; problems can be solved both more comprehensively and more rapidly; memory can be improved from absent to perfect; and creative thinkers can generate a limitless number of ideas rather than a truncated list." Marshall Goldsmith et al, "The Many Facets of Leadership", 2002)
"[a mind map is a] "visual note-taking process that includes key words and pictures illustrating the relationships among concepts." (Ruth Colvin Clark, Chopeta Lyons, "Graphics for Learning: Proven guidelines for planning, designing, and evaluating visuals in training materials" 2nd ed., 2011)
"Data visualizations can also play a critical role when it is time to disseminate and communicate evaluation findings. Data visualization engages and supports program stakeholders by increasing their capacity to understand data and participate in the evaluation process. Collaboratively developed mind maps, logic models, and graphic illustrations can facilitate understanding of the findings and their implications by depicting a program’s most important activities, outcomes, and ultimate goal in a concise and clear manner. Well-designed interactive visualizations for reporting and community engagement help stakeholders answer questions of import within context and place engaged stakeholders in the driver’s seat in terms of defining variables and interpreting results." (Tarek Azzam et al, "Data Visualization and Evaluation", "Data visualization, part 1: New Directions for Evaluation", 139], 2013)
"Paradoxically one of the greatest advantages of mind maps is that they are seldom needed again. The very act of constructing a map is itself so effective in fixing ideas in memory that very often a whole map can recalled without going back to it at all. A mind map is so strongly visual and uses so many of the natural functions of memory that frequently it can be simply read off in the mind's eye." (Peter Russell, "The Brain Book: Know Your Own Mind and How to Use it", 2013)
"With the adoption of a more schematic and abstract construct, deprived of realistic arboreal features, a tree diagram could sometimes be rotated along its axis and depicted horizontally, with its ranks arranged most frequently from left to right. Horizontal trees probably emerged as an alternative to vertical trees to address spatial constraints and layout requirements, but they also provide unique advantages. The nesting arrangement of horizontal trees resembles the grammatical construct of a sentence, echoing a natural reading pattern that anyone can relate to. This alternative scheme was often deployed on facing pages of a manuscript, with the root of the tree at the very center, creating a type of mirroring effect that is still found in many digital and interactive executions. Horizontal trees have proved highly efficient for archetypal models such as classification trees, flow charts, mind maps, dendrograms, and, notably, in the display of files on several software applications and operating systems." (Manuel Lima, "The Book of Trees: Visualizing Branches of Knowledge", 2014)
"Essentially, a mind map is a type of node-link diagram in which the nodes represent concepts and the links represent relationships between concepts. The central idea to be explored is placed in the middle of the page and it is expanded out from there. Usually mind maps are drawn as tree structures with no cross links between branches, but this can be restrictive." (Colin Ware, "Information Visualization: Perception for Design" 4th Ed., 2021)
"The educational use of mind maps and concept maps would seem to fit well with constructivist theory. To construct such a map, students must actively draw out links between various concepts as they understand them. The problem is that the cognitive engagement tends to be somewhat superficial for mind maps, since it does not require that students think deeply about the nature of the links." (Colin Ware, "Information Visualization: Perception for Design" 4th Ed., 2021)
"Idea mapping offers the power to represent qualitative data, describe relationships, and enable one to see the 'big picture'. Further, mapping allows us to represent data in a way that facilitates the conceptualizing of its meaning. It provides a 'map', which makes it possible to observe macrophenomena, discover trends, and generate creative options. Idea mapping makes it possible to represent multiple dimensions of a situation without losing sight of any of its parts; it is an efficient way to manage an overwhelming amount of qualitative information. Finally, it offers a way to present information to clients in a graphic form that is both easy to understand and data rich. Often, an entire strategic plan can be represented in one map." (Terry Moore)
