Mind Map & Mental Literacy Research
Excerpt from Research Papers – Blackwell Science Ltd Medical Education 2002,36:426-431
The efficacy of the 'mind map' study technique
By Paul Farrand – Department of Human Science, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary college, University of London, London, UK – now at Institute of Health Studies, University of Plymouth; p.farrand@plymouth.ac.uk
Fearzana Hussain – Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary College, University of London, London, UK
Enid Hennessy – Department of Environmental and Preventive Medicine, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary College, University of London, London, UK
Objectives To examine the effectiveness of using the 'mind map' study technique to improve factual recall from written information.
Design To obtain baseline data, subjects completed a short test based on a 600-word passage of text prior to being randomly allocated to form two groups: ‘self-selected study technique’ and ‘mind map’. After a 0-minute interval the self-selected study technique group were exposed to the same passage of text previously seen and told to apply existing study techniques. Subjects in the mind map group were trained in the mind map technique and told to apply it to the passage of text. Recall was measured after an interfering task and a week later. Measures of motivation were taken.
Setting Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of London.
Subjects 50 second- and third-year medical students.
Results Recall of factual material improved for both the mind map and self-selected study technique groups at immediate test compared with baseline.
However this improvement was only robust after a week for those in the mind map group. At 1 week, the factual knowledge in the mind map group was greater by 10% (adjusting for baseline) (95% CI -1% to 22%). However motivation for the technique used was lower in the mind map group; if motivation could have been made equal in the groups, the improvement with mind mapping would have been 15% (95% CI % to 27%).
Conclusion Mind maps provide an effective study technique when applied to written material. However before mind maps are generally adopted as a study technique consideration has to be given towards ways of improving motivation amongst users.
With adjustment for baseline performance and motivation, a significant difference in performance was found between the mind map and the self-selected study groups. For both session 1 and session 2, the mind map group recalled significantly more correct items thatn the self-selected study group, showing a clear study advantage when the mind map was used, which was robust over a 1-week time delay.
Additionally, all analyses were further replicated with sex as a covariate, but this did not change any of the conclusions. Analysis of the data indicates that, as a strategy to improve memory for written information, the mind map technique has the potential for an important improvement in efficacy.
Improvement in recall at a week re-test remained evident with just a single exposure to the mind map technique suggests a real benefit of this study technique compared with other memory strategies where benefits have been confined only to test of immediate recall.
Whilst it is beyond the scope of this study to identify the nature of the cognitive processes supported when mind maps are used, it is likely that mind maps encourage a deeper level of processing than that obtained with the other, more conventional study techniques adopted in the self-selected study technique. A deeper level of information processing has been associated with better academic performance by medical students.
This paper has shown the efficacy of using mind maps as a student aid, even when use has been limited to a single exposure. The increased use of mind maps, and the emergence of educational materials supporting the use of mind maps, within medical curricula, should therefore be cautiously welcomed. The mind map technique would seem to be particularly suited to medical curricula based around PBL, as both approaches support, and encourage students to adopt a deeper level of learning.