Scribd
Upload
409 views4 pages

Radiant Thinking

The document discusses the benefits of mind mapping over traditional note taking. It explains that mind maps use images and visual elements that engage more of the brain than linear notes. Mind maps allow for creative associations between concepts by arranging ideas in a radial, hierarchical structure rather than a list. The document also summarizes the key principles of mind map construction, such as using emphasis, associations, clarity and developing a personal style.

Uploaded by

eehwa88
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
409 views4 pages

Radiant Thinking

The document discusses the benefits of mind mapping over traditional note taking. It explains that mind maps use images and visual elements that engage more of the brain than linear notes. Mind maps allow for creative associations between concepts by arranging ideas in a radial, hierarchical structure rather than a list. The document also summarizes the key principles of mind map construction, such as using emphasis, associations, clarity and developing a personal style.

Uploaded by

eehwa88
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

Radiant Thinking http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/charles57/Creative/Mindmap/Ra...

The Mind Map Book


How to Use Radiant Thinking to Maximize

Your Brain's Untapped Potential


Published by Penguin Group/Dutton 1993
ISBN 0-525-93904-0

Some notes made by Charles Cave for the benefit of the Creativity Web Page

Contents of this page


The Mind Map Book
The disadvantages of standard notes
Mind maps use pictures.
Harnessing the full range of your cortical skills
Summary of the Mind Map Laws
The mnemonic mind map as a mirror of creativity.
Creative Thinking Mind Maps
Computer Mind Mapping

The disadvantages of standard notes


1. They obscure key words. This prevents the brain from making appropriate associations between the
key concepts.
2. They make it difficult to remember. Monotonous single color notes are boring. Most notes look like
lists.
3. They waste time by encouraging or requiring unnecessary noting, reading and rereading
unnecessary notes, and searching for key words.
4. They fail to stimulate the brain creatively. Linear presentations prevent the brain from making
associations, thus counteracting creativity and memory. Reading a list implies an `end' or `finish'
whereas a mind map encourages the brain to build on existing thoughts and ideas.

Consider the problem of "What are some alternative uses for a paper clip"

If you started to write a list, you would become bored and would probably slow down. Alternatively, a
mind map allows building on previous ideas, attributes, or stepping stone ideas.

1 of 4 9/25/2009 3:57 AM
Radiant Thinking http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/charles57/Creative/Mindmap/Ra...

Mind maps use pictures.


The reason why pictures are `worth a thousand words' is that they make use of a massive range of cortical
skills: color, form, line, dimension, texture, visual rhythm and especially imagination - a word taken from
the Latin imaginari, literally meaning `to picture mentally'.

Images are therefore often more evocative than words, more precise and potent in triggering a wide range
of associations, thereby enhancing creative thinking and memory. So why do we bother taking notes
without the benefit of images? Sadly, we have a modern emphasis on words as the primary vehicle of
information.

Harnessing the full range of your cortical skills


Hierarchies and categories.

A classic study done in 1969 demonstrated the importance of hierarchies in an aid to memory.
Generating ideas with a mind map is much easier than making lists, because key words or "Basic Ordering
Ideas" can be used as triggers. Linear notes in the form of lists directly oppose the workings of the mind,
in that they generate an idea and then deliberately cut it off from the preceding and following it.

Wholeness/Gestalt

Harnessing the brain's tendency to function in gestalts or wholes, allows the addition of blank lines to the
key words on the Mind Map, enticing the brain to `fill in' the beckoning areas.

Once the brain realizes it can associate anything with anything else, it will almost instantaneously find
associations, especially when given the trigger of an additional stimulus.

The Mind Map is based on the logic of association, not the logic of time (as in a list)

The Basic Ordering Ideas in any Mind Map are those words or images which are the simplest and most
obvious ordering devices. They are the key concepts, gathering the greatest number of associations to
themselves. A good way to find these BOIs is to ask:

2 of 4 9/25/2009 3:57 AM
Radiant Thinking http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/charles57/Creative/Mindmap/Ra...

What knowledge is required?


- If this were a book, what would the chapter headings be?
What are my specific objectives?
What are the most important seven (7) categories in the area under consideration?
What are the basic questions? Why? What? Where? Who? How? When? often serve remarkably
well as major branches in a Mind Map.

Summary of the Mind Map Laws


Techniques
1. Use emphasis

- Always use a central image


- Use images throughout your Mind Map
- Use three or more colors per central image
- Use dimension in images
- Use synaesthesia (the blending of the physical senses)
- Use variations of size of printing, line and image
- Use organized spacing
- Use appropriate spacing

2. Use Association

- Use arrows when you want to make connections within and across the branch pattern
- Use colors
- Use codes

3. Be Clear

- Use only one key word per line


- Print all words
- Print key words on lines
- Make line length equal to word length
- Connect lines to other lines
- Make the central lines thicker
- Make your boundaries `embrace' your branch outline
- Make your images as clear as possible
- Keep your paper placed horizontally in front of you
- Keep your printing as upright as possible

4. Develop a personal style

Layout

1 Use hierarchy
2 Use numerical order

The mnemonic mind map as a mirror of creativity.

3 of 4 9/25/2009 3:57 AM
Radiant Thinking http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/charles57/Creative/Mindmap/Ra...

Applying energy or power to memory produces a fertilization which results in creativity.

Mnemonic techniques involve the use of imagination and association in order to produce a new and
memorable image.

Like memory, creative thinking is based on association and imagination. The aim is to link item A with
item B, thus producing the new, innovative, far-from-the-norm idea we label `creative'.

A creative device combines two elements to project a third into the future, but the creative aim is to
change or affect the future in some way.

Creative Thinking Mind Maps


Objectives:

1. To explore all the creative possibilities of a given subject


2. To clear the mind of previous assumptions about the subject, thus providing space for new creative
thought
3. To generate ideas that result in specific action being taken, or physical reality being created or
changed.
4. To encourage more consistent creative thinking
5. To create new conceptual frameworks within which previous ideas can be reorganized.
6. To capture and develop 'flashes' of insight when they occur.
7. To plan creatively (Mind Map diaries with a yearly plan, monthly plan and daily plan maps)

Computer Mind Mapping


At the moment computer Mind Mapping cannot compete with the infinite visual variety, portability and
`minimum tool requirement' of traditional Mind Mapping techniques. However the areas where computers
can offer a significant improvement to personal productivity are the areas of automatic Mind Map
generation; Mind Map editing; data storage and retrieval, text input and organization of data. The creation
of many variations of the same Mind Map is also facilitated and accelerated.

Last updated: 4th June 2002

4 of 4 9/25/2009 3:57 AM

You might also like