What is cognitive informatics and how does it relate to cognitive science and artificial intelligence?

Cognitive informatics is an emerging transdisciplinary field that studies how information is processed in both the human mind and computers, aiming to bridge the gap between them. It relates to cognitive science because cognitive science studies the mind, intelligence, and behavior from an information-processing perspective, while cognitive informatics uses informatics and computing techniques to investigate cognitive processes and also applies cognitive theories to improve computing and software engineering. Artificial intelligence is a related field that uses cognitive science and computer science to replicate and generate human intelligence, and cognitive informatics findings can be modeled in AI to create more efficient computing applications.

Cognitive informatics (CI), as described by Wang (2003), is an emerging transdisciplinary field that bridges the gap in understanding how information is processed in the mind and in the computer. It has two connected directions: one uses informatics and computing techniques to investigate cognitive science problems such as memory, learning, and reasoning; the other uses cognitive theories to investigate problems in informatics, computing, and software engineering. This bidirectional approach is supported by organizations such as the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which defines CI as the multidisciplinary study of cognition and information sciences that investigates human information processing mechanisms and their engineering applications in computing. Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary field that studies the mind, intelligence, and behavior from an information-processing perspective. It draws from psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, computer science, linguistics, biology, and physics, and covers areas such as memory, attention, perception, reasoning, and language. Cognitive informatics builds on cognitive science by focusing specifically on the mechanisms of acquiring, representing, remembering, retrieving, generating, and communicating information, and then applying that understanding to improve computing systems. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the field that deals with the conception, development, and implementation of informatics tools based on intelligent technologies. AI captures the complex processes of human thought and intelligence and uses cognitive science and computer science to replicate and generate human intelligence. CI helps bridge cognitive science and AI by systematically exploring brain and mind mechanisms, and those insights can be modeled in AI situations to create more efficient computing applications. Principles of CI and an understanding of how humans interact with computers are used to build information technology systems that better meet users' needs.