What is cognitive informatics and how does it bridge the gap between the mind and the computer?

Cognitive informatics is an emerging transdisciplinary field that studies how information is processed in the human mind and in the computer. It bridges the gap by using computing and informatics theories to explain brain information processing, while also using cognitive and neurologic sciences to create more efficient computer processing systems.

According to Wang, cognitive informatics is an emerging transdisciplinary field that bridges the gap in understanding how information is processed in the mind and in the computer. This bridging works in a bidirectional way: informatics and computing techniques are used to investigate cognitive science problems such as memory, learning, and reasoning, while cognitive theories are used to investigate problems in informatics, computing, and software engineering. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory similarly defines cognitive informatics as the multidisciplinary study of cognition and information sciences, investigating human information processing mechanisms and their engineering applications in computing. The field systematically explores how information is acquired, represented, remembered, retrieved, generated, and communicated, and then applies this understanding to artificial intelligence situations, thereby bridging artificial and natural intelligence and supporting the design of usable information technology systems.