In both my last year of high school and my freshmen year at the university, I got strong recommendations to study using mind maps - especially because this is apparently better to cope with large amounts of new information.Is mind mapping effective in learning and reflecting on information?If so, how does mind mapping help in learning and reflecting on information?
Why are mind maps recommended for study and recap?
learning;educational psychology
Concept mapping is a way of reviewing the material, depending on the study it may be significantly better than other forms of review, though not all studies I read found that superiority.  The most popular theory for its claimed superiority is that it also organizes the information better for recall; most of the papers that found concept mapping better than the other forms of review tested had the subjects create their own concept maps.Most of the reading I did was several months ago, and I don't have references readily available; but I was Googling metacognition recently and found a paper, that says concept maps work by improving metacognition, though they are only marginally better for that than rereading.Joshua S. Redford, Keith W. Thiede, Jennifer Wiley, Thomas D. Griffin.  Concept mapping improves metacomprehension accuracy among 7th graders.  Learning and Instruction (2011), doi:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2011.10.007