MIND MAPPING, ASSOCIATIVE CONNECTING, THE STEALTH WEAPON AGAINST BRAIN TRAUMA/DISEASE - Or go through the backdoor, basement window, chimney, or mailbox, it's time to think "outside the box". - Health - http://maxpages.com/resurrection/Memory

You're about to become acquainted with a powerful new tool for "lock ing" information in your memory. Called Memory Maps ( or mind maps ), learning experts have been developing it over the last decade or so. The technique is so simple it seems almost like a kid's game. All you do is jot down key ideas and facts and draw arrows to indicate connec- tions or associations between them.
But Memory Mapping is much more than child's play. CEOs of multinational corporations, software developers, entrepreneurs, col- lege professors, and students are all using it to boost memory power and stimulate thinking. It's great for meetings and lectures and for any time you have an opportunity to jot notes. When you catch informa- tion "on the fly" or can't use Memory Map when it's first presented, use Memory Mapping later to crystallize the information and store it in your mental hard drive.
Memory Mapping is derived from the work of Canadian psychologist Endel Tulving. He gave two groups of students 100 cards with words printed on one side. He asked one group to memorize the words. He asked the other to organize them into what seemed logical categories to them.
Afterward Tulving tested both groups to see how many of the loo words they remembered. Surprisingly, those who had merely organized the words without making any special effort to remember them scored just as well on the test as students who concentrated on memorizing them. Tulving concluded that the students' active involvement in organizing the material provided meaningful patterns and associations that reinforce data in our memory as effectively as conscious effort to remember it.Memory Mapping involves writing a key word from something you want to remember in the center of a sheet of paper. Important subideas are written nearby, and lines are drawn between them and the central idea. Ideas that connect to the subideas are then jotted down, and a line is drawn to connect them. Some of these may connect to the main idea, or they may not. The final result looks like a doodle or a kid's drawing, with dozens of branching clusters.
It is more fun to store information this way than through linear note taking, and it's easier to locate key ideas later at a glance. It's great for classes, sales meetings, books, reports, videos, television documen- taries, audio tapes, anywhere that information is being disseminated verbally or visually.

A POWERFUL MEMORY ENHANCER

This Memory Map might be confusing, just a mishmash of labels and lines. But begin in the center with the Key Idea and things will soon start to make sense. Follow the lines that move away from there; they terminate in secondary or subideas. Lines radiate from these subideas to subordinate ideas or sub-subideas. Other lines show con- nections between these subideas and sub-subideas and the Key Idea or with each other.
Memory Mapping is a powerful memory enhancer because it works on a number of levels at once.

0 Diagramming information converts the incoming mass of data into concepts and images that are meaningful to you.
0 It draws on the left-brain verbal, analytical abilities and the right- brain spatial, visual abilities, reinforcing facts and data simultane- ously in the memory circuits on both sides of your brain.
0 By jotting down key ideas and indicating connections between them, you personalize the data, arranging them in a way that is meaningful to you.
0 Because there is always space for further ideas and connections, you are prodded to keep looking in new directions.
0 Since the key elements are all right there on one sheet it's easier for you to see important connections. ,
0 Information is organized around your own perception of how the ideas are associated, making them more likely to lodge in your memory and easier to recall.
0 Consciously processing the information-rather than passively lis- tening or reading-makes it more likely you will remember it.
0 Connecting ideas in a nonlinear fashion is actually a powerful memory enhancer, working with the natural grain of the mind, which links memories the same way.

MEMORY MAPPING MADE EASY

Stop for a moment. Think back over your life to moments when you suddenly mastered a difficult task or figured out
understand. They stick in your memory, don't they? You still remem- ber the skill acquired or the facts you learned.
That's the power of personal involvement. That's also why Memory Maps make such powerful tools for reinforcing facts and fig- ures while you learn or later. Identifying what you feel is important, jotting down key words, drawing connections, pinpointing relation- ships all generate personal involvement. This doubles memory power by ensuring you'll remember what you map better and longer and more easily than you will by passive listening, reading, or taking notes.

Memory Mapping is easy, too. All you need is a large sheet of paper and a pencil. The larger the sheet of paper, the better-one of those large-size art or chart-size pads is best. But millions of Memory Maps have been drawn on standard 8-1/2 x 11 sheets of paper. By all means, use a pen if that's all you've got. You may however, want to alter elements as you find better words or dis- cover a connection you want to change, and it's easier to erase with a pencil.
One writer I met even uses colored pencils. He recommended having three to five separate colors to help distinguish different kinds of connections and types of ideas. He uses one color of pencil to dis- tinguish what he actually learned new, another for things from his own experience, and a third for information he needed to follow up and research later. Still others were reserved for subideas and sub- subideas.
Memory Mapping involves six strategic steps:

0 Write a key idea or fact you want to remember in the center of the page and draw a circle around it.
0 Nearby, jot down any important related ideas or subideas that occur to you and remember to circle each.
0 Draw lines connecting these ideas to your central idea.
0 Jot down specific examples, references, or thoughts implied by your subideas and connect them. ,
0 Keep adding ideas and connections as ley occur to you until you feel you have captured everything important.
0 Continue to make additions later if anything important surfaces.Here are some tips drawn from leading proponents of Memory Mapping that Will help you get the most from your efforts. Don't worry about whether an idea is important enough or not. You can always erase it, move it, or change it by inserting a new, more impor- tant item in its circle. To give yourself even more options for changing your mind, leave room for new circles that may occur to you later. Your map doesn't have to be complete or "academically" accurate. It's your personal record, and as long as it suits your needs, that's all that mat- ters. The only purpose of a Memory Map is to create and capture thoughts and data you consider vital, in your own way.
For shorthand, you can use any visual symbols that have meaning for you-dollar signs, cartoons, whatever. Place a dollar sign next to elements that relate to increasing your own income. Put an X or a skull and crossbones by things you have been warned to avoid. Or try a question mark by figures you need to double-check.
The next exercise is designed to introduce you to Memory Mapping as simply as possible. It Will give you immediate experience putting your knowledge of Memory Mapping to work.

BRAIN POWER EXECISE/MIND-MAPPING
Make a Memory Map of what you consider the key ideas in this chapter. Get a pencil and that large sheet of paper mentioned earlier.
I. Put a word or two representing what you consider the main subject of the chapter In the center of the page and cIrcle It.
2. Next pencil in the two or three key subideas and draw lines connecting
them to the central idea.
3. Examine each subidea one at a time and add any ideas they suggested in a cluster around them
4. Then examine each sub-subidea and jot down any subsidiary ideas they ~ight suggest and so on until you feel you have included everything Important.
5. Leave room for new circles to contain any ideas or relevant facts that you learn or think of later. How effective is Memory Mapping at increasing memory power? Ask Jan DeGroot. "It's just doodling," Jan scoffed the first time he heard about it. J an headed a Boston financial institution with branches throughout the state that was about to swell its size through merger with a rival organization.
I suggested a simple stratagem for putting the power of Memory Mapping to the test. It's one you can try too. I told Jan to have his assis- tant take notes the old-fashioned way during the next merger meeting, while he used Memory Mapping to keep track of important details. (You can make the same arrangement with a friend for a lecture or meet- ing. ) At the end of the day, they were to each sit down and, without ref- erence to their earlier notes, try to write down as many key items as they could remember. The results astonished both Jan and his assistant. Jan's list contained almost double the number of details. You'll be astonished at the results too if you give Memory Mapping a try.
Memory Mapping is a lifesaver in almost any learning experience. Say you were caught flat-footed in the hall at the office and were given rapid fire data you weren't in a position to write down. Say events pre- vented you from scribbling them down as notes afterward. Even days later, the power of Memory Mapping to summon associated memories from the unconscious is so strong that if you began to map what you heard in the hall, Wu would generate nearly 100 percent recall.

BRAIN POWER EXCERCISE- MIND-MAPPING #2.
You can use me following exercise to map key information you want to remember no matter what form it comes in, visual, verbal, or print. You can use it right men or days, weeks, and even monilis later.
I. Get a sheet of paper and a pencil.
2. Write me key fact--or a key fact (it doesn't matter)-in me center of the page.
3. Circle it and all subsequent items you write down.
4. Write important related ideas or subideas around it in a cluster. 5. Draw lines connecting mese subideas tome central circle.
6. Note any relationships between subideas wiili a connecting line.
7. Cluster any ideas related to your subideas around them and draw me appropriate connection. Note any relationships beteen these sub- subideas and oilier subideas or your central idea.
8. Continue until finished.

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