Chapter 2
Visualising Information
In This Chapter
How and why visualisation can help you
Categorising visualisation methods
The background and origins of Mind Mapping
Why should you bother to visualise information? After all, you can just write it out as text. In this chapter I want to show you that visualising information has many advantages that aren’t shared by text on its own.
How and Why Visualisation Can Help You
In his book Brain Rules the American neurobiologist John Medina suggests that humans are visual creatures and can assimilate and store visual information far more effectively than, say, acoustic information:
‘We are incredibly good at recording images. If you hear some information, then three days later you will remember only 10% of it. If you add a picture to it, then 65% will be retrievable’.
You’re probably familiar with the saying ‘a picture paints a thousand words’. Not all sayings are correct but this one has a lot of truth to it and has even been confirmed scientifically.
In specialist jargon there’s an expression ‘Pictorial Superiority Effect’, which means ...
