The process of storing knowledge requires active study, interpretation or evaluation. You must actively acquire information to store it and consider it knowledge. Even information that you seem to pick up passively is actually an active process of evaluation and perception. Mind-mapping as a technique begins with writing a word on a page and then continues as you make connections to other words or ideas. This process is often referred to as creative thinking. Similarly, the natural technique of mind-mapping involves you forming logical connections between various resources of knowledge already stored in your brain.
Your brain stores information. From the moment you begin to perceive the world around you, you begin storing knowledge upon which you base your concept of reality. Mind-mapping is the natural process that your brain uses to file this information, through a series of connections between images and experiences, according to Litemind. These connections between ideas is also a natural form of logic and reasoning, used by our brain to interpret areas of knowledge.
Knowledge forms the foundation for your understanding. Its purpose is to provide a deep wealth of information regarding past experiences and information you have acquired. Mind-mapping is a drawing of the connections between areas of knowledge. Its purpose is to provide a basis for reasoning by comparing areas of knowledge and methods for linking those ideas. Knowledge provides the foundation and mind-mapping provides the reasoning and rationale behind thought.
Knowledge and mind mapping rely on each other. A foundation of knowledge serves no purpose without the ability to make rational and reasoned decisions based on that knowledge. Likewise, the strong reasoning skills that represent your brain's mind mapping technique could not form those connections without a strong resource of knowledge upon which to form those connections.