Science Behind Mind Maps: Utilising AI for Studying, Planning, Collaborating, Managing, Problem Solving, and Brainstorming

Ever wondered why we have sign boards on the roads instead of written messages in text format? It is because commuters take a shorter span of time to comprehend the meaning and can take action immediately. If the commuter would have to read a long sentence on the road to understand the instruction, then it might take a lot of time, and the commuter would not be able to take immediate action. Similarly, if the notes are taken in the form of mind maps or signs and symbols, it will be easier to read and recall the information instead of devoting more time to reading the detailed information from the chapter at the time of revision. 

FEATURES OF MINDMEISTER APP: AN AI MIND MAP GENERATOR

• Real-time Workspace Collaboration:

Collaborate, brainstorm, manage projects, make notes, and more with the use of this tool, all at the same time. MindMeister provides the opportunity to share the working projects with the team to brainstorm and put in ideas at the same time. This furthers the opportunity for peer learning and collaboration. 

• Use for a diversity of purposes:

Teachers, students, project teams, or any other professionals can use this tool to collaborate with each other and plan or prepare the implementation or working of new ideas. The capacity of MindMeister to facilitate group brainstorming sessions is one of its primary advantages. 

• Effective Project Organisation and Management:

Users can make and share mind maps, which are graphic representations of ideas and concepts connected together, with team members. Multiple people can edit the mind map at once, adding their ideas, comments, and observations. This creates an environment that is dynamic and interactive for creating and brainstorming. 

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EXPERIMENT WITH AI GENERATED MIND MAPS WITH MINDMEISTER

Here are the steps to create mind-maps with the online tool MindMeister:

Step 1: Log in to the MindMeister Website and explore the dashboard as shown.

 Step 2: Click on this option for ‘Mind Maps’.

Step 3: Mention the topic around which you want to generate the mind map in the ‘My New Mind Map’ bubble.

Step 4: Click ‘+’ to create a branch and sub-branches, or press TAB on the keyboard to create a ‘child’ branch or a new branch, and press ENTER to create a ‘sibling’ branch or a sub-branch.

Step 5: Click ‘Share’ at the top right corner of the screen to share your mind-map with your team and choose the desired path for the same, thereafter.

THE IDEA BEHIND MIND-MAPS

As social beings, our brains are always processing information and thoughts. Sometimes the thought process is active when we are consciously aware of our thoughts and working upon them while making notes, writing, discussing our ideas with others, etc. At other times, the information is being processed subconsciously while observing, talking to others, playing, listening, walking, doing daily chores, etc. This information processing by our brains can also be termed as ideation. It can be defined as the process during which our brain works on preconceived knowledge, recalls it, applies it to the new stimulus, and learns new information or facts that are then stored in the short-term memory and then transferred to the long-term memory on frequent recalls. Writing can be used as a self-help tool to implement the knowledge in practise and make connections with known or new facts, as writing provides an opportunity to reflect on the thoughts and ideas in a systematic and detailed manner. There are different ways in which writing can be used as a tool to reflect on and work upon ideas. The writing activity could be based on different prompts, structured questionnaires, or observations. The quantitative data or the qualitative information can be presented in various forms, like graphs, flow charts, rubrics, mind maps, bullet points, or detailed paragraphs.

Let’s dive into the details of understanding the process of creating AI capacitated mind maps and the scientific advantages of using mind maps while studying, note-making, brainstorming, managing projects, collaborative learning, etc.

KNOW MORE ABOUT MIND MAPS!

A mind map is a diagram to represent information about a theme while creating interconnections between subtopics and related information in a hierarchical form. It can be considered a visual representation of textual data or information. Tony Buzan first used the phrase "mind mapping" in 1974. British author and TV personality Buzan, a specialist in psychology, popularised this brainstorming method, often known as "radiant thinking’. Let’s understand the process of mind mapping with the help of the following mind map:

As shown in this mind map, created on MindMeister, different ideas and related themes or topics are connected with the central theme through the branches. This provides flexibility to organise large amounts of information in an ordered and creative way. The information and related keywords can be colour coded, which makes it easier to understand the information and make interconnections. It allows exploration in a fun-filled way as the information is presented in a short and crisp form with keywords or related images. The process of creating mind maps is helpful in teaching new concepts to a learner as it furthers the learning from the pre-existing knowledge of the learner to the schema activation to make logical connections between the known facts and the new observations while gaining confidence in the process of understanding the new concepts. This is based on the idea of relating the learner’s knowledge about the objects in the proximate environment to the information about the distant objects, which makes learning a meaningful process with the help of mind maps, as a mind map acts as a tool to present complex information in a simple yet creative and concise way. Thus, mind maps actually map the thought process of a person’s mind. 

PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY AND SYMBOLIC COMMUNICATION

Since childhood, we have always been attracted to the colourful picture books and drawings, and as we grow, the format of our books orients towards text with black ink on the white pages. It is always interesting to read picture books that are colourful, as the pictures provide an aesthetic edge while being used as a tool for symbolic communication. Similarly, mind maps trace our photographic memory and imagination, due to their identical aspect with images, during revision and recall of any information. It is relatively easier to observe pictures and comprehend different views about them than to recall the information in a long text.