Rich picture

This description refers to Mind Maps and not Rich Pictures [http://systems.open.ac.uk/materials/t552/pages/rich/richAppendix.html] .

Mind maps (or similar concepts) have been used for centuries, for learning, brainstorming, memory, visual thinking, and problem solving by educators, engineers, psychologists and people in general. Some of the earliest examples of mind maps were developed by Porphyry of Tyros, a noted thinker of the 3rd century as he graphically visualised the concept categories of Aristotle. Ramon Llull also used these structures of the mind map form. They are also used in many other businesses when starting from the beginning

People have been using image-centered radial graphic organization techniques referred to variably as mental or generic mind maps for centuries in areas such as engineering, psychology, and education, although the claim to the origin of the mind map has been made by a British popular psychology author, Tony Buzan. He claimed the idea was inspired by Alfred Korzybski's general semantics as popularized in science fiction novels, such as those of Robert A. Heinlein and A. E. van Vogt. He argues that 'traditional' outlines rely on the reader to scan left to right and top to bottom, whilst what actually happens is that the brain will scan the entire page in a non-linear fashion. He also uses popular assumptions about the cerebral hemispheres in order to promote the exclusive use of mind mapping over other forms of note making.

More recently the semantic network was developed as a theory to understand human learning, and developed into mind maps by the renaissance man Dr Allan Collins, and the noted researcher M. Ross Quillian during the early 1960s. As such, due to his commitment and published research, and his work with learning, creativity, and graphical thinking, Dr Allan Collins can be considered the father of the modern mind map.Fact|date=March 2007

The mind map continues to be used in various forms, and for various applications including learning and education (where it is often taught as 'Webs' or 'Webbing'), planning and in engineering diagramming.

When compared with the earlier original concept map (which was developed by learning experts in the 1960s) the structure of a mind map is a similar, but simplified, radial by having one central key word.

Mind maps are often incorrectly considered to be Rich Pictures, but since Mind Mapps tend to be mainly text-based and do dictate a degree of formality with respect to their structure, clear distinctions can be drawn. Generally, the two notations serve different purposes (for example, in the field of Systems Engineering).

RICH PICTURES as developed by Peter Checkland are described on [http://systems.open.ac.uk/materials/t552/pages/rich/richAppendix.html] .

See also

*New Epoch Notation Painting
*Soft Systems Methodology