Learning Strategies
Let me begin by saying that I'm not a psychologist or an educator, which means this discussion of learning styles is not intended to be academic. I am, however, profoundly interested in accelerated learning and have read a tremendous amount of information about this topic. My intent here is simply to share some of that information with you, and explain how mind mapping can help people with different learning strategies.
Learning styles generally are broken down into three main categories - visual (sight), auditory (sound), and kinesthetic (physical), although none of us use one style exclusive of the others. Other factors also influence learning styles - whether or not you prefer to work alone or with others, have strong logical skills, etc. (Learning-Styles-Online.com has an excellent overview of learning styles and a free online learning styles test with easy-to-understand graphical results.)
Individuals with a strong visual learning strategy are able to "see" information in their thoughts. This takes many forms (spatial awareness, photographic memory, color/tone, brightness/contrast and other visual information). Strong auditory learners have a keen awareness of sound, including pitch, direction, tone, volume, etc. And kinesthetic learners have a strong sense of touch, of body awareness, of "gut feelings," etc.
Does this mean mind maps are useful only for visual learners? Absolutely not.
Mind Maps for All Learning Styles
My primary learning style is a combination of auditory-analog and auditory-digital. That means I usually communicate with myself with a "voice in my head." I hear thoughts, usually in my own voice, have near-perfect recollection of conversations (words and tone), and often remember information through auditory repetition. I'm also a kinesthetic learner - often something will "feel right", although I don't know exactly why.
Notice I didn't mention visual learning. Except for being a very good speller - usually associated with visual learning strategies - visual is not my dominant learning strategy. However, mind maps are incredibly valuable for me in my personal and professional life.
First and foremost, I don't try to visually memorize my mind maps. Instead, I use the information and its structure to understand how everything fits together, and to have lightning fast access to information. (See the section on information management for details.) Instead of reinforcing a visual learning strategy, mind maps compensate for my lack of that type of dominant strategy.
Whatever your learning strategy, I'm confident mind mapping can work for you too. If you're interested in memorizing your mind maps, let me offer you a tip. (This works for memorizing just about anything.) Hold your mind map above eye level when you're trying to memorize it. Why? Most people access the visual portions of the brain by looking up because that's where our brains store visual information. Sound crazy? Try this experiment with a friend - ask her to remember the hair color of the last person she saw leaving the office today, and watch her eyes when she tries to remember. Most right-handed people will look up and right (that's where their visual-remembered data is stored). Left-handed people, including me, will naturally glance up and left.
In fact, this is one of the many tools US law enforcement officials use in their interrogations. How? In addition to visual-remembered information, there is visual-created (meaning something you make up and "see" in your mind). The visual-remembered information generally is on the opposite side (still looking up) of the visual-created. So if you're right-handed and an FBI agent asks you a question, make sure you're not looking up and left when you start formulating your answer!
Learning Style Resources
This list isn't complete - I'm only comfortable recommending resources I've personally used or read and found valuable.
- Memletics High Performance Learning I completed both the Accelerated Learning and Concept Mapping ebooks and they're amazing! The Memletics methods include all types of learning styles, not just visual learning strategies.
- Learning-Styles-Online.com has an excellent overview of learning styles and a free online learning styles test with easy-to-understand graphical results.
- Dynamic Learning by Robert Dilts and Todd Epstein (Accelerated learning strategies for adults and children, lot of examples. If you have children in school or in college, get this book right now.)
- The Mind Map Book, Tony Buzan. This is the place to start if you're interested in mind mapping. Chapter 1, The Amazing Brain, is particularly useful in discussions of learning strategies.
- Other mind mapping books.
- Mindmapping software.
- An article
- If you're interested in learning mind mapping right now, I highly recommend Chuck Frey's Power Tips & Strategies for Mind Mapping Software ebook. Available for immediate download, Power Tips & Strategies is loaded with basic and advanced strategies for getting the most out of your mind mapping software.