Visual maps and guides in high stress situations

I had a stimulating conversation about the directions my work is heading with two of my mentors last week.   One part of the conversation was about further examining the potential of visual mapping in clinical teaching, especially in the area of suicide risk assessment.  I need to understand the cognitive science of mapping more.  One of the questions we discussed in this meeting is whether there is a special benefit of visual mapping for situations that involve high arousal (such as that which a clinician faces when assessing an individual with high risk of suicide).   Is there better recall of previously presented material?  Can a clinician process a visual aide in the midst of the clinical moment better than text?   I’d imagine these things have been explored, at least in some form, by educational psychologists, cognitive scientists, and neuroscientists.    I recently added a tag for “needs development” so I can review things that I’ve noted needing more work.  This post will get that tag.