Why diagramming helps you think better

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I was reading a book called 'Thinking - the latest research findings on how we really think, learn and make decisions'. The latest research provides interesting clues to why diagramming and idea / concept mapping helps you think better. Why it is better at helping you clarify your thoughts and grasping issues and concepts more quickly.

Here are some important research nuggets I found in the book that are relevant to diagrams for thinking:

1. The brain likes to 'Chunk' things. It needs to break things up and group them in digestible pieces. That is why our eyes glaze over when presented with long blocks of text in a paragraph or lists that are longer than 5 -7 items long.

Tree or concept-map layouts help you do that. Tree nodes provide 'grouping' hooks. So does highlighting and annotation. It is also the reason newspaper use columns.

2. The brain likes to connect and chain the 'chunks'. The brain seems to be very good at recognizing and remembering - connected paths and scenes. That is why we find it a lot easier to remember routes - but find it hard to remember lists.

3.The brain is better wired for Horizontal layouts vs vertical ones: Evolution has prepared us more for horizontal vistas and layouts - than for vertical ones. ( Our hunting ancestry on the African plains?)

While we are conditioned to the 'downward flow' of waterfalls, we are better wired to see distinct features horizontally.

Traditional list making violates these principles and forces us to scan vertically.

When we want to compare - we like put items side-by-side horizontally. Not vertically

4. Finally- the brain likes to see the whole picture at a glance. While we may choose to focus on a few elements at a time- we need to know more stuff is there to look at - even though it may be blurred. The ability to see things at a glance was important for survival

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