Award for Original Studies

             This award was set up to recognize research studies of outstanding originality within cognitive psychology or related fields.  It seeks to promote original research on cognitive psychology within Japan.

              The primary criterion for selection is the originality of the research.  Although candidate studies are limited to studies conducted by living Japanese researchers at Japanese organizations, there are no other restrictions on candidates.  It is not required that candidate studies have been published in The Japanese Journal of Cognitive Psychology; nor is it necessary that they be recent studies.  Moreover, it is not necessary for candidate researchers to be either elderly distinguished researchers or young researchers below a certain age; nor is it necessary that they be members of the Japanese Society for Cognitive Psychology.

              Recipients of the Award are decided by the Selection Committee, which consists of experts from cognitive psychology and related areas.  The members of the committee may or may not be members of the Society.  The originality of each candidate study is assessed by three or more qualified experts who may or may not be members of the Society.  Previous recipients of the Award are listed below: 

2005  The Urge Theory of Emotion  (Masanao Toda)

2006  A Study of Confession  (Sumio Hamada)

2007  New Visual Illusions  (Akiyoshi Kitaoka)

2008  A Study of the Three Prisoners Problem
         (Shin’ichi Ichikawa & Shinsuke Shimojo)

2009  A Study of Finger Writing  (Masato Sasaki) 

The award has been co-sponsored by the Japanese Cognitive Science Society since 2008.