A method of storing data in a database organizes the data in electronic objects and enriches the objects with `cognitive elements`. These elements allow a search of objects in the database which is similar to the human thinking process. One or more cognitive elements may be selected, leading to a list of objects with a relevance score based on the number of cognitive elements found for each object in the list. Computer programs allow to create such a database, to retrieve information from it, and to view information contained in it.