These pictorial methods record knowledge and model systems, and have a long history in learning, brainstorming, memory, visual thinking, and problem solving by educators, engineers, psychologists, and others. Origins Īlthough the term 'mind map' was first popularized by British popular psychology author and television personality Tony Buzan, the use of diagrams that visually 'map' information using branching and radial maps traces back centuries. Mind maps are considered to be a type of spider diagram.
Mind maps can also be drawn by hand, either as 'notes' during a lecture, meeting or planning session, for example, or as higher quality pictures when more time is available. Major ideas are connected directly to the central concept, and other ideas branch out from those major ideas. It is often created around a single concept, drawn as an image in the center of a blank page, to which associated representations of ideas such as images, words and parts of words are added.
Diagram to visually organize information A mind map about the cubital fossa or elbow pit, including an illustration of the central concept