elaboration

Elaboration as a cognitive learning strategy fundamentally depends on memory: elaboration works by linking new information to existing knowledge structures within a memory system. Without memory as the substrate, elaboration has nothing to elaborate INTO. This is present-tense necessity per Law 8, not chronology.

Elaboration as a cognitive strategy requires language to generate connective content — examples, analogies, restatements are all linguistic acts. Remove language and the elaboration mechanism cannot operate. Present-tense dependency is constitutive.

Elaboration — the technique of connecting new information to existing knowledge through detailed explanation — is built and maintained for the sake of learning. It is a designed pedagogical practice whose purpose is to deepen comprehension and retention, per Law 8d: the servant (elaboration) points at the master (learning).

Elaboration IS a specific kind of learning-strategy: the cognitive technique of connecting new information to prior knowledge through explanation and example. 'a Y' test passes — elaboration is called 'a learning strategy.' Nearest kind, per Law 9. Sense: elaboration as a learning technique (cognitive psychology), not the rhetorical device or general process of expounding.

Mind-mapping IS a specific kind of elaboration: creating visual representations of information to deepen understanding is a form of elaborative processing. Elaboration is the nearer kind compared to the broader learning-strategy.