Masaru Shirasuna
(Cognitive Information Science Lab.)
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Cognitive Science, Decision Science ...
Cognitive Science, Decision Science ...
Human Intelligence, Human System …
Human Intelligence, Human System …
Affiliation
Faculty of Informatics, Department of Behavior Informatics,
Shizuoka University, Junior Associate Professor
(3-5-1, Johoku, Chuo-ku, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka 432-8011, Japan)
m.shirasuna1392[AT]gmail.com
📢 Event Information 📢
[Dec. 6-7, 2025; Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan] CogSci Asia-Pacific Meetup Kickoff (ICCS2025)
We will hold an international conference "CogSci Asia-Pacific Meetup Kickoff" for Asia-Pacific Cognitive Science researchers! Please check it out!
https://sites.google.com/view/cogsci-asia-pacific-meetup/home
Publications
International Journal
Shirasuna, M., Kagawa, R., & Honda, H. (2025). Pause before action: Waiting short time as a simple and resource-rational boost. Scientific Reports. 15, 4362. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-87119-z
Honda, H., Kagawa, R., & Shirasuna, M. (2024). The nature of anchor-biased estimates and its application to the wisdom of crowds. Cognition, 246, 105758. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105758
Shirasuna, M., Honda, H. (2023). Can individual subjective confidence in training questions predict group performance in test questions?. PLOS ONE. 18(3): e0280984. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280984 [Kudos]
Honda, H., Kagawa, R., & Shirasuna, M. (2022). On the round number bias and wisdom of crowds in different response formats for numerical estimation. Scientific Reports. 12, 8617. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-11900-7
Shirasuna, M., Honda, H., Matsuka, T., & Ueda, K. (2020). Familiarity-matching: An ecologically rational heuristic for the relationships-comparison task. Cognitive Science. 44(2), e12806. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12806 [Kudos]
Honda, H., Shirasuna, M., Matsuka, T., & Ueda, K. (2018). Do people explicitly make a frame choice based on the reference point? Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 2552. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02552
Japanese Journal
Shirasuna, M., & Kosaka, K. (2024). Judgments under uncertainty in a buzzer quiz: A case study based on behavioral data in a quiz competition. Cognitive Studies: Bulletin of the Japanese Cognitive Science Society. 31(2), 352-361. https://doi.org/10.11225/cs.2024.004
Shirasuna, M., Honda, H., Matsuka, T., & Ueda, K. (2022). Rationality that is speculated from the history of heuristic studies: Investigations of human intelligence through interactions between cognition and environment. Cognitive Studies: Bulletin of the Japanese Cognitive Science Society. 29(3), 404-414. https://doi.org/10.11225/cs.2022.028
Shirasuna, M., Matsuka, T., Honda, H., & Ueda, K. (2017) Familiarity-Matching: Experimental Study on Cognitive Processes and Ecological Rationality. Cognitive Studies: Bulletin of the Japanese Cognitive Science Society, 24(3), 328-343. https://doi.org/10.11225/jcss.24.328
Preprint
Shirasuna, M. (2024). The evidence accumulation-based framework to explain human cognitive processes for considering quiz questions: A pilot study in Japan. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/8q9u3
Shirasuna, M., Kagawa, R., & Honda, H. (2024). "Wait Short Time" as a Simple and Resource-rational Boost: Theoretical and Empirical Approaches in the Contexts of Speed-accuracy Trade-off. Research Square. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4284750/v1
Shirasuna, M., & Kosaka, K. (2023). Judgments under uncertainty in a buzzer quiz: A case study based on behavioral data in a quiz competition. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/tghax (Japanese manuscript)
Honda, H., Kagawa, R., & Shirasuna, M. (2023). The nature of anchor-biased estimates and its application to the wisdom of crowds. PsyArXiv. https://psyarxiv.com/9yv5q/
Shirasuna, M., Kagawa, R., & Honda, H. (2023). "One-second wait": A simple and effective intervention to boost judgment accuracy. PsyArXiv. https://psyarxiv.com/fd8u9/
Shirasuna, M., & Honda, H. (2022). Can individual subjective confidence in prior questions predict group performance in future questions? PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/fpw6m
Kagawa, R., Shirasuna, M., Ikeda, A., Sanuki, M., Honda, H., & Nosato, H. (2022). One-second Boosting: A Simple and Cost-effective Intervention for Data Annotation in Machine Learning. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ctqgd
Shirasuna, M., & Honda, H. (2021). Do low-confidence individuals decrease group judgments’ accuracy? Investigations in terms of the wisdom of crowds framework. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/xnk4p
Other papers
Shirasuna, M. (2021). Is the heuristic applicable? ~Examinations of the adaptive toolbox framework in terms of the accuracy and applicability in a new task structure~. de Finetti Award (The European Association for Decision Making). ※ paper submitted
Thesis (English)
[Ph D. thesis] Shirasuna, M. (2021). The adaptive use of heuristics: Investigations of human inferential strategies in a new task structure. (The University of Tokyo) [UTokyo Repository]
[Master thesis] Shirasuna, M. (2018). Familiarity-matching ~inferences based on familiarity and investigations of inference processes using statistical model. (The University of Tokyo)
International conference (with referred proceedings)
Shirasuna, M., Honda, H., & Kagawa, R. (2025). Effective but untrustworthy: How artificial intelligence bias opposing human bias affects judgments. In D. Barner, N. R. Bramley, A. Ruggeri and C. M. Walker (Eds.), Proceedings of the 47th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 3650-3656) Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Shimbori, K., Shirasuna, M., & Morita, J. (2025). Emotional Parameters in Cognitive Architecture: Examination Through Simple Memory Performance. In D. Barner, N. R. Bramley, A. Ruggeri and C. M. Walker (Eds.), Proceedings of the 47th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 5558-5564; accepted as oral presentation for 6-page paper, but we chose virtual poster presentation) Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Shimbori, K., Shirasuna, M., & Morita, J. (2025). Estimating Emotion Related Parameters for Inter- and Intra-Individual Variability. Abstract published at Virtual MathPsych/ICCM 2025. Via mathpsych.org/presentation/2005.
Shirasuna, M., Kagawa, R., & Honda, H. (2024). Cognitive Load In Speed-Accuracy Tradeoff: Theoretical and Empirical Evidence Based on Resource-Rational Analyses. In L. K. Samuelson, S. L. Frank, M. Toneva, A. Mackey, & E. Hazeltine (Eds.), Proceedings of the 46th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 5115-5121). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Honda, H., Shirasuna, M., Kawaguchi, J., Matsuka, T., & Ueda, K. (2024). On the ecologically rational inference and memory-based judgment errors. In L. K. Samuelson, S. L. Frank, M. Toneva, A. Mackey, & E. Hazeltine (Eds.), Proceedings of the 46th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (p. 6162; accepted for 6-page paper, but we chose to publish only abstracts) Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Shirasuna, M., Kagawa, R., & Honda, H. (2023). A one-second wait improves judgment accuracy: A mouse tracking reveals cognitive processes during choice behaviors. In M. Goldwater, F. K. Anggoro, B. K. Hayes, & D. C. Ong (Eds.), Proceedings of the 45th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (p. 3672; accepted for 6-page paper, but we chose to publish only abstracts). Cognitive Science Society.
Kagawa, R., Shirasuna, M., Ikeda, A., Sanuki, M., Honda, H., & Nosato, H. (2022). A simple and cost-effective intervention that promotes the optimal allocation of cognitive resources. Proceedings of the 44th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (p. 3723; accepted for 6-page paper, but we chose to publish only abstracts). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Shirasuna, M., Honda, H., & Ueda, K. (2019). Can a forward posture enhance willingness to change one’s own attitude in decision making? ~Nudging with embodied cognition approach~. In A. Goel, C. Seifert, & C. Freksa (Eds.), Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (p. 3361; accepted for 6-page paper, but we chose to publish only abstracts). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Honda, H., Shirasuna, M. (presenting author), Matsuka, T., & Ueda, K. (2018). Speakers’ choice of frame based on reference point: With explicit reason or affected by irrelevant prime? In T.T. Rogers, M. Rau, X. Zhu, & C. W. Kalish (Eds.), Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1806-1811). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Shirasuna, M., Honda, H., Matsuka, T., & Ueda, K. (2017). Familiarity-matching in decision making: Experimental studies on cognitive processes and analyses of its ecological rationality. In G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T. Tenbrink, & E. J. Davelaar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 3143-3148). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
International conference presentation
Shimbori, K., Shirasuna, M., & Morita, J. (2025). Estimating Emotion Related Parameters for Inter- and Intra-Individual Variability. ICCM 2025.
Shirasuna, M., Honda, H., & Kagawa, R. (2025). Effective but untrustworthy: How artificial intelligence bias opposing human bias affects judgments. Virtual poster presented at the 47th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, in San Francisco, California, United States (and in Virtual).
Shimbori, K., Shirasuna, M., & Morita, J. (2025). Emotional Parameters in Cognitive Architecture: Examination Through Simple Memory Performance. Virtual poster presented at the 47th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, in San Francisco, California, United States (and in Virtual) (accepted as oral presentation for 6-page paper, but we chose virtual poster presentation).
Shirasuna, M., Kagawa, R., & Honda, H. (2024). Cognitive Load In Speed-Accuracy Tradeoff: Theoretical and Empirical Evidence Based on Resource-Rational Analyses. Poster presented at the 46th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, in Rotterdam, South Holland, Netherlands (and in Virtual).
Honda, H., Shirasuna, M., Kawaguchi, J., Matsuka, K., & Ueda, K. (2024). On the ecologically rational inference and memory-based judgment errors. Poster presented at the 46th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, in Rotterdam, South Holland, Netherlands (and in Virtual).
Shirasuna, M., Kagawa, R., & Honda, H. (2023). One-second wait: boosting to improve workers’ accuracy with less their workload. Oral presented at 1er Colloque international à distance NUDGES et ÉDUCATIO, in virtual (Nudgelabeducation, in Cergy, France). [link]
Honda, H., Kagawa, R., & Shirasuna, M. (2023). Nudging or boosting group: utilizing anchoring effects for enhancing wisdom of crowds. Oral presented at 1er Colloque international à distance NUDGES et ÉDUCATIO, in virtual (Nudgelabeducation, in Cergy, France). [link]
Shirasuna, M., Kagawa, R., & Honda, H. (2023). A one-second wait improves judgment accuracy: A mouse tracking reveals cognitive processes during choice behaviors. Poster presented at the 45th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, in Sydney, Australia (and in Virtual).
Honda, H., Kagawa, R., & Shirasuna, M. (2023). Effective utilization of anchor-biased estimates for the wisdom of crowds. Poster presented at the 45th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, in Sydney, Australia (and in Virtual).
Shirasuna, M., Kagawa, R. (presenting author), & Honda, H. (2022). Waiting for one second improves accuracy: Experimental examinations based on mouse trajectories during binary choice tasks. Poster presented at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making, in San Diego, CA.
Honda, H., Kagawa, R. (presenting author), & Shirasuna, M. (2022). Utilization of anchoring bias for wisdom of crowds. Poster presented at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making, in San Diego, CA.
Kagawa, R., Shirasuna, M., Ikeda, A., Sanuki, M., Honda, H., & Nosato, H. (2022). A simple and cost-effective intervention that promotes the optimal allocation of cognitive resources. Poster presented at the 44th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, in Toronto, Canada (and in Virtual).
Shirasuna, M., & Honda, H. (2022). How do individuals’ confidence about their judgments affect group judgments? Medium-level confidence will decrease accuracy. Poster presented at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making.
Honda, H., Kagawa, R., & Shirasuna, M. (2022). Response format in numerical estimations and the wisdom of crowds. Poster presented at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making.
Shirasuna, M., Honda, H., & Ueda, K. (2019). Can a forward posture enhance willingness to change one’s own attitude in decision making? ~Nudging with embodied cognition approach~. Poster presented at the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, in Montreal, Canada.
Honda, H., Shirasuna, M. (presenting author), Matsuka, T., & Ueda, K. (2018). Speakers’ choice of frame based on reference point: With explicit reason or affected by irrelevant prime? Poster presented at the 40th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, in Madison, WI.
Shirasuna, M., Honda, H., Matsuka, T., & Ueda, K. (2017). Familiarity-matching in decision making: Experimental studies on cognitive processes and analyses of its ecological rationality. Poster presented at the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, in London, England.
Research keywords
Heuristic; Judgment under uncertainty; Bounded rationality; Ecological rationality; Resource rationality; Adaptive toolbox; Judgment accuracy; Confidence; Wisdom of crowds; Nudge; Boost; Quiz (trivia question) competition
Education
Ph. D. in Cognitive Science. The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, 2021.
Department of General Systems Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
(Prof. Kazuhiro Ueda)
M. A. in Cognitive Science. The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, 2018.
Department of General Systems Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
(Prof. Kazuhiro Ueda)
B. A. in Literature, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan, 2016.
Department of Behavioral science, Faculty of letter
(Prof. Toshihiko Matsuka)
Mito First High school, Ibaraki, Japan, 2011
Language
Japanese (native)
English
Computer skills
Computer language
R (R studio), Python (jupyter notebook, spyder), MATLAB (MATLAB, GNU Octave)
Methodologies
Behavioral experiment (lab/online); Computer simulation; Cognitive modeling; Mouse tracking (using R); Real-world data analyses
Experimental tool
PsychoPy, Qualtrics
Work experience
Lecturer, Shizuoka University
October 2024 – present
Specially-appointed Assistant Professor, Otemon Gakuin University
April 2021 – September 2024
Research assistant, Centan Inc.
April 2019 – January 2021
Graduate student lecturer for special lecture, Educational corporation Kawaijuku
July 2018 – July 2018
Membership
Membership in Society for Judgment and Decision Making
September 2021 – present
Membership in Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence
June 2019 – present
Membership in Association of Behavioral Economics and Finance
December 2018 – present
Membership in Japanese Society for Cognitive Psychology
June 2017 – present
Membership in Cognitive Science Society
July 2017 – present
Membership in Japanese Cognitive Science Society
September 2016 – present
Honors & Awards
Distinguished Oral Presentation Award, Japanese Cognitive Science Society in 2024
Distinguished Presentation Award, Emerging Technologies Award, academist Prize the 3rd FINAL pitch contest in 2024
academist Prize the 3rd (academic-crowdfunding project) "AI * ○○", academist Inc., in 2023
Distinguished Presentation Award, Technology Evaluation Division, The Japanese Society for Cognitive Psychology in 2021
Education Research Institute Award for a distinguished Poster Presentation, Hyper Interdisciplinary Conference Tokyo 2022 (by Leave a Nest Co. Ltd.)
Distinguished Poster Presentation Award, Japanese Cognitive Science Society in 2021
L-RAD award as the 53rd Leave a Nest research award in 2021
Distinguished Ideathon Award of the 3rd workshop at The Japanese Psychonomic Society Committee in 2018
Research grants
Grants as PI
L-RAD award, Leave a Nest grant (2021.12 – 2022.11)
Grants as Co-I
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (2022.4-2025.3) 22H03915 (PI: Hidehito Honda, Otemon Gakuin University)
Academic crowdfunding as PI
academist; Monthly support type project "Quiz * Cognitive Science: Experimental investigations of human intelligence underlying a buzzer quiz" (2023.5 – 2024.8)
Fellowships
Research scholarship for young scientists, Otemon Gakuin University (2022.7-2023.3)
Traveling fellowship for international conference presentation, Japanese Cognitive Science Society (2019.7)
Traveling fellowship for international conference presentation, The University of Tokyo (2019.7)
Traveling fellowship for international conference presentation, Japanese Cognitive Science Society (2017.7)
Review experience
Ad Hoc Reviewer (International Journal)
Journal of Cognitive Science
Frontiers in Psychology: Environmental Psychology
Ad Hoc Reviewer (Japanese Journal)
Japanese Journal of Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive Studies: Bulletin of the Japanese Cognitive Science Society
International conference proceeding (full-paper review)
Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (2023 – present)
Domestic conference proceeding (abstract review)
Annual Conference of the Japanese Cognitive Science Society (2020 – present)
My Research
My Research
Exploring “human intelligence” from a cognitive science approach
Exploring “human intelligence” from a cognitive science approach
My specialty is cognitive science, particularly decision science.
Compared to artificial intelligence (AI), humans are inferior in terms of computational capacity and memory storage, and thus the amount of data humans can handle is very small. However, even so, humans do not always make the wrong decisions. Rather, they are able to make accurate judgments in many situations.
I capture this as the superior and sophisticated thinking that is unique to humans = “human intelligence”.
I aim to clarify the essence of human intelligence through cognitive science approaches such as behavioral experiments, cognitive modeling, computer simulations, and analyses of the real-world data.
Beyond the Bias
Everyone makes mistakes and often shows biases in their judgments. However, in the real world, humans have large constraints in terms of cognitive resources such as computational capacity (this is particularly clear when compared to AI). In addition, there is often uncertainty involved in decision-making, such as when insufficient information is available or when the future is unknown.
Considering such limited cognitive resources, there may be some rational aspect behind judgments and behaviors that are believed as "bias".
Humans often judge and behave aiming to maximize benefits under many cognitive constraints. They might be able to make more accurate judgments if they spent more time thinking about it. However, they might have to stop thinking at some point because, for example, the longer thinking would increase computational costs, or someone else would beat them to it. As a result, they might have made inaccurate or irrational judgments.
At first glance, it seems simple, but actually humans behave well. I think that this is the essence of human intelligence.
“AI x Human” system
With the rapid development of the digital age, there is a growing need for “collaboration” between humans and AI.
In such situations, it is not enough to just improve the accuracy of “human-only” or “AI-only” judgments. It is important to improve the accuracy of “AI x human” judgments.
For example, how can we design an AI that is trusted by people? What kind of AI assistance is valid for effectively boosting humans cognitive competence? In considering these questions, it is necessary to understand not only the “AI” side, but also the “human” side.
Cognitive scientific investigations of human intelligence will have the potential to provide theoretical and practical implications for better human-AI collaboration.
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