information handlers in L2 face challenges on the
problem how to make interlinks between
intellectual and emotional concepts in native and
foreign languages. Nowadays the innovative
methods use several new tools helping to
simplify processing the information in the brain.
Mind mapping is among the most powerful ones,
functioning as a graphical information transfer
tool used in the process of thinking presented in
a convenient perception form of association
schemes. It also might come as a multi-coloured
and image-centred radial diagram (Eppler, 2006)
that hierarchically represents semantic or other
connections between parcels of learned material.
The essence of mind map approach primarily was
introduced in the “Use your head” research by T.
Buzan (Buzan, 1984) which once made him one
of the brilliant students at the University of
British Columbia. Those students with whom this
scientist optionally studied also gained
remarkable results, whereas those who were
lagging, noteworthily fostered their academic
performance after implementing the cognitive
cards approach.
In the digital era mind map is profoundly
embedded into the investigation of intelligent
agents based on cognitive architectures, serving
a pre-requisite to a cognitive systems’ toolkit.
Such cognitive architectures contribute to
understanding the interaction mechanism of
cognitive processes, constituting “a special niche
in the development of AI systems, endowed with
mental capabilities, such as perception, attention,
memory, reasoning, learning” (Marques et al.,
2022). Therefore, mind map appears to be an
effective tool of cognitive graphics underlying, f.
i., scientific visualization that “merge
information and graphics to produce appealing
images of data that boost a person’s ability to
quickly consume and understand content”
(Smiciklas, 2012). Nowadays cognitive graphics
presents a new branch of human acquisition,
integrating “cognitive science, computer
graphics, psychology, graphic design, education,
science and many others depending on a sphere
of application” (InfoScipedia, 2023). Cognitive
visualization within the theory of multimedia
learning performs a complex process that
includes some mental activities, whereas the
process of learning (Mayer, 2002) in turn
consists of three subsequent stages. First and
foremost, visual images are perceived by the
eyes. Secondly, students deal with some aspects
of the visual image in working memory.
Following the construction of series of mental
images, they arrange the set of images into a
coherent mental representation called a pictorial
model. The latter involves selection, organization
and integration of figures and is commonly
referred to as visual-spatial thinking. The
mentioned above theory of multimedia learning
is related to a constructivist epistemology of
learning, under which students diligently develop
their own understanding of the world, rather than
get such understanding delivered to them. Such
an outlook requires students to be active
participants in the learning process rather than to
merely absorb information entirely presented to
them (Mnguni, 2014).
Cognitive visualization as an utterly multi-
dimensional function of human consciousness
plays a vital role in formation and activation of
personal potential in learning subjects. Within a
visualization which makes the meaning visible a
student has to mobilize resources of figurative
and logical complex thinking as well as the
aesthetic-cultural artistic feature and other
important personality traits and qualities.
Up-to-date visualization objects have become
scientific formulas, logic-symbolic models,
technical functional and structural schemes as
well as a range of didactic tools, allowing to
manipulate the properties of objects in the
internal and external extents. To create
visualization products, the evidence of external
prototypes might not be necessary due to the
autonomy of internal images related to the object.
Reflection of visualization process has its base in
abstract imagination which formalize the original
image. The cognitive visualization results in an
image formed by the conscious thought that
defines an unknown object / phenomenon and
represents in the external plan of the educational
activity. Therefore, the key tasks of cognitive
visualization become development of ways and
means of purposefully creating thought images
within the educational process.
Cognitive visualization has certain properties
that significantly affect the degree of activation,
increase dynamism of mental systems and
educational activities on processing and
assimilation of knowledge. The first property of
cognitive visualization lies in a quality of
knowledge concentration. Being the core of
intensification of the educational process, it
suggests an increase in the density and saturation
of information presented to students. In a
diachronic plane, visualization, especially
cognitive, has been “an integral part of man’s
investigation of the world” which significantly
contributed “to invention and discovery”, while
modelling functions as a “flexible, recursive
process which is dependent on the individual