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Peter J. Marshall

Peter J. Marshall in a black shirt smiling and staring into the camera

Peter J. Marshall

  • College of Liberal Arts

    • Psychology and Neuroscience

      • Professor

      • Affiliated Faculty

        Programs

        • Neuroscience

Expertise

Developmental Psychology, Developmental Neuroscience, Infant Development

Biography

Dr. Marshall's research focuses on development in infancy and childhood, including how infants relate their own actions and experiences to those of other people, and how these processes are reflected in brain development. His empirical work has addressed action and imitation, relations between self and other, and how the body is represented in the developing brain. Much of this work has used electroencephalographic (EEG) methods, alongside behavioral approaches. Recent studies have increasingly used naturalistic video collection and computer vision methods. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and various foundations. Dr. Marshall has also written on broader questions concerning development, embodiment, and the relation between psychological and biological explanation. This work explores possibilities for a more integrative developmental science.

From 2016 to 2026, Dr. Marshall served as Chair of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Temple. He is Past President of the Society for the Study of Human Development, a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and a recipient of the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching at Temple.

Dr. Marshall received his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Cambridge and carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Maryland before joining the Temple faculty in 2004. 

Website

Selected Publications

  • Campbell, K., Horger, M. N., Pavlakos, G., Parma, V. & Marshall, P. J. (2026). Dynamics of infant preshaping: Longitudinal analysis using automated hand pose tracking from home video. Infant Behavior and Development, 84, 102232. 
  • Langer, A., Wilson, J., Howard, L., & Marshall, P.J. (2026). The influence of individual characteristics on children’s learning with a social robot versus a human. Scientific Reports, 16, 3488.
  • Marshall, P. J. (2024) Towards a biologically coherent approach to the brain and how it develops. Human Development, 68, 209-220.  
  • Horger, M. N., Campbell, K., & Marshall, P. J. (2024). Electrophysiological responses to digit stimulation in a tactile oddball paradigm. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 203, 112391.  
  • Yang, Y., Langer, A., Howard, L., & Marshall, P. J., Wilson, J. R. (2024). Towards an ontology for generating behaviors for socially assistive robots helping young children. Proceedings of the AAAI Fall Symposia, 2, 1, 213-218  
  • Taylor, J., Weiss, S. M., & Marshall, P. J. (2023). Genes, genomes, and developmental process. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 46, e204.   
  • Langer, A., Marshall, P. J., Levy-Tzedek, S. (2023). Ethical considerations in child-robot interactions. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 151,105230.   
  • Weiss, S. M., & Marshall, P. J. (2023). Anticipation across modalities in children and adults: Relating anticipatory alpha rhythm lateralization, reaction time and executive function. Developmental Science, e13277.  
  • Ma, L., Marshall, P. J., & Wright, W.G. (2022). The impact of external and internal focus of attention on visual dependence and EEG alpha oscillations during postural control. Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, 19, 81. 
  • Shen, G., Weiss, S. M., Meltzoff, A. N., Allison, O. N., & Marshall, P. J. (2022). Exploring developmental changes in infant anticipation and perceptual processing: EEG responses to tactile stimulation. Infancy, 27, 97-114  
  • Marshall, P. J., Houser, T. M., & Weiss, S. M. (2021). The shared origins of embodiment and development. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 15, 726403.  
  • Taylor, J., Weiss, S. M., & Marshall, P. J. (2020). "Alexa, how are you feeling today?" Mind perception, smart speakers, and uncanniness. Interaction Studies, 21, 329-352. 
  • Meltzoff, A. N., & Marshall, P. J. (2020). Importance of body representations in social-cognitive development: New insights from infant brain science. Progress in Brain Research, 254, 25-48. 
  • Weiss, S. M., Laconi, R. N., & Marshall, P. J. (2020). Individual differences in anticipatory mu rhythm modulation are associated with executive function and processing speed. Cognitive Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 20, 901-916.  
  • Shen, G., Meltzoff, A. N., Weiss, S. M., & Marshall, P. J. (2020). Body representation in infants: Categorical boundaries of body parts as assessed by somatosensory mismatch negativity. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 44, 100795.  
  • Marshall, P. J., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2020). Body maps in the infant brain: implications for neurodevelopmental disabilities. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 62, 778-783.  
  • Shen, G., Meltzoff, A. N., & Marshall, P. J. (2019). Body representations as indexed by oscillatory EEG activities in the context of tactile novelty processing. Neuropsychologia, 132, 107144. 
  • Meltzoff, A. N., Saby, J. N., & Marshall, P. J. (2019). Neural representations of the body in 60-day-old human infants. Developmental Science, 22, 12698. 
  • Marshall, P. J. (2018). Embodiment. In A. S. Dick & U. Müller (Eds.), Advancing developmental science: Philosophy, theory, and method (p. 29-40). New York: Routledge.  
  • Drew, A. R., Meltzoff, A. N., Marshall, P. J. (2018). Interpersonal influences on body representations in the infant brain. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 2601.   
  • Weiss, S. M., Meltzoff, A. N., & Marshall, P. J. (2018). Neural measures of anticipatory bodily attention in children: Relations with executive function. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 34, 148-158.  
  • Smyk, N. J., Weiss, S. M., Marshall, P. J. (2018). Sensorimotor oscillations during a reciprocal touch paradigm with a human or robot partner. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 2280.  
  • Shen, G., Weiss, S. M., Meltzoff, A. N., & Marshall, P. J. (2018). The somatosensory mismatch negativity as a window into body representations in infancy. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 134, 144-150.  
  • Shen, G., Smyk, N. J., Meltzoff, A. N., & Marshall, P. J. (2018). Neuropsychology of human body parts: Exploring categorical boundaries of tactile perception using somatosensory mismatch responses. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 30, 1858-1869.  
  • Bunlon, F. Gazeau, J-P., Colloud, F., Marshall, P. J., & Bouquet, C. A. (2018). Joint action with a virtual robotic vs. human agent. Cognitive Systems Research, 52, 816-827. 
  • Meltzoff, A. N., & Marshall, P. J. (2018). Human infant imitation as a social survival circuit. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 24, 130-136.  
  • Meltzoff, A. N., Ramirez, R. R., Saby, J. N., Larson, E., Taulu, S., & Marshall, P. J. (2018). Infant brain responses to felt and observed touch of hands and feet: An MEG study. Developmental Science, 21, 12651. 
  • Witherington, D. C., Overton, W. F., Lickliter, R., Marshall, P. J., & Narvaez, D. (2018). Metatheory and the primacy of conceptual analysis in developmental science. Human Development, 61, 181-198.  
  • Shen, G., Meltzoff, A. N., & Marshall, P. J. (2018). Touching lips and hearing fingers:  Effector-specific congruency between tactile and auditory stimulation modulates N1 amplitude and alpha desynchronization. Experimental Brain Research, 236, 13-29. 
  • Shen, G., Smyk, N. J., Meltzoff, A. N., & Marshall, P. J. (2018). Using somatosensory mismatch responses as a window into somatotopic processing of tactile stimulation. Psychophysiology, 55, e13030.  
  • Shen, G., Saby, J. N., Drew, A. R., & Marshall, P. J. (2017). Exploring potential social influences on brain potentials during anticipation of tactile stimulation. Brain Research, 1659, 8-18.  
  • Marshall, P. J. (2016). Embodiment and human development. Child Development Perspectives, 10, 245-250.  
  • Marshall, P. J., & Brenneman, K. (2016). Young children’s developing understanding of the biological world. Early Education and Development, 27, 1103-1108. 
  • Saby, J. N., Meltzoff, A. N, & Marshall, P. J. (2016). Beyond the N1: A review of late somatosensory evoked responses in human infants. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 110, 146-152.  
  • Marshall, P. J., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2015). Body maps in the infant brain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19, 499-505. 
  • Saby, J. N., Meltzoff, A. N., & Marshall, P. J. (2015). Neural body maps in human infants: Somatotopic responses to tactile stimulation in 7-month-olds. NeuroImage, 118, 74-78.  
  • Drew, A. R., Quandt, L. C., & Marshall, P. J. (2015). Visual influences on sensorimotor EEG responses during observation of hand actions. Brain Research, 1597, 119-128. 
  • Marshall, P. J. (2015). Neuroscience, embodiment, and development. In W. F. Overton & P. C. Molenaar (Eds.), Theory and method. Volume 1 of the Handbook of child psychology and developmental science (7th ed., p. 244-283). Editor-in-chief: R. M. Lerner. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 

Courses Taught

  • Introductory Psychology
  • Phases of Development: Infancy
  • Neuroscience of Development and Aging
  • Capstone in Psychology