Reference:: Source: Page 43 - Organizing Knowledge (see attached) Conceptual system maps deal with mental constructs rather than physical things. The most common form of conceptual system map is a mind - map, where different ideas are linked by branching lines. Mind maps can also be represented as tree structures, but the 360 ° format radiating around a central core provides greater representational power. Proximity and cross - linkages are easier to represent than in a tree structure.

Mind - maps also frequently employ colour coding to discriminate between different categories.Concept maps are a more rigorous form of mind - map. In concept mapping the nature of the relationship between any two concepts is made explicit – in fact, you should be able to literally ‘ read ' any two connected nodes as a grammatical sentence, in the format CONCEPT 1 + relationship+ CONCEPT 2.

The overall visual representation of the knowledge domain should still take primacy over the completeness of the linkages (Crandall et al., 2006: ch. 4). An example of a concept map summarising the three main attributes of a taxonomy is given in Figure 2.11.

Concept maps are extremely useful for cataloguing specialist knowledge domains (often constructed by interviewing subject matter experts) as well as explaining knowledge domains in a summary form for novices. Their taxonomic use can be deepened by attaching further knowledge information resources to each of the nodes in the map.