Research
My research investigates how people’s beliefs about causal relationships influence their thinking, especially in regard to how they think about categories in the world. I have conducted basic research in the formation of beliefs about causal relationships, as well as processes that influence categorization. I have investigated these phenomena in the real-world domain of health. Specifically, I am interested in how our beliefs (especially our causal theories) affect how we view disorder categories and members of those categories. For more information, please visit my lab website.
Selected Publications
Marsh, J. K., Zeveney, A. S, & De Los Reyes, A. (2020). Informant discrepancies and mental health treatment assessment. Clinical Psychological Science, 8, 318-332. doi: 10.1177/2167702619894905
Zheng, M., Marsh, J. K., Nickerson, J. V., & Kleinberg, S. (2020). How causal information affects decisions. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 5, 1-24. doi: 10.1186/s41235-020-0206-z
Marsh, J. K., De Los Reyes, A. (2018). Explaining away disorder: The influence of context on impressions of mental health symptoms. Clinical Psychological Science, 6, 189-202. doi:10.1177/2167702617709812
Marsh, J. K., De Los Reyes, A., & Lilienfeld, S. O. (2018). Leveraging the multiple lenses of psychological science to inform clinical decision-making: Introduction to the special section. Clinical Psychological Science, 6, 167-176. doi:10.1177/2167702617736853
Marsh, J. K., & Vitriol, J. A. (2018). Explanation hubris and conspiracy theories: A case of the 2016 Presidential election. In T. T. Rogers, M. Rau, X. Zhu, & C. W. Kalish (Eds.), Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2090-2095). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Shaak, K., Johnson, M. B., Marsh, J. K., Hansen, S. E., Seaton Banerjee, E., Stello, B., & Careyva, B. A. (2018). Exploring health beliefs among Hispanic adults with prediabetes. Journal of Community Health, 43, 962-968. doi:10.1007/s10900-018-0512-2
Vitriol, J. A., & Marsh, J. K. (2018). The illusion of explanatory depth and endorsement of conspiratorial beliefs. European Journal of Social Psychology, 48, 955-969. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2504
Marsh, J. K., & Romano, A. L. (2016). Lay judgments of mental health treatment options: The mind vs. body problem. Medical Decision Making: Policy & Practice, 1, 1-12. doi:10.1177/2381468316669361
Zeveney, A. S., & Marsh, J. K. (2016). The illusion of explanatory depth in a misunderstood field: The IOED in mental disorders. In A. Pagafragou, D. Grodner, D. Mirman, & J. C. Trueswell. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1020-1025). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Marsh, J. K., Burke, C. T., & De Los Reyes, A. (2016). The sweet spot of clinical intuitions: Predictors of the effects of context on impressions of conduct disorder symptoms. Psychological Assessment, 28, 181-193. doi:10.1037/pas0000173
Cooper, J. A., & Marsh, J. K. (2015). The influence of expertise on essence beliefs for mental and medical disorder categories. Cognition, 144, 67-75. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2015.07.016
Marsh, J. K., & Kulkofsky, S. (2015). The selective power of causality on memory errors. Memory, 23, 291-305. doi:10.1080/09658211.2014.884139
Marsh, J. K., & Zeveney, A. (2015). Naïve beliefs about intervening on causes and symptoms in the health domain. In D. C. Noelle, R. Dale, A. S. Warlaumont, J. Yoshimi, T. Matlock, C. D. Jennings, & P. P. Maglio (Eds.), Proceedings of the 37th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1529-1534). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Marsh, J. K., De Los Reyes, A., & Wallerstein, A. (2014). The influence of contextual information on lay judgments of childhood mental health concerns. Psychological Assessment, 26, 1268-1280. doi:10.1037/pas0000012
Marsh, J. K., & Hick, D. H. (2014). Beliefs about experiencing and destroying art. In P. Bello, M. Guarini, M. McShane, & B. Scassellati (Eds.), Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 970-975). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Marsh, J. K., & Shanks, L. L. (2014). Thinking you can catch mental illness: How beliefs about membership attainment and category structure influence interactions with mental health category members. Memory & Cognition, 42, 1011-1025. doi:10.3758/s13421-014-0427-9
Associate Professor
Associate Dean for Interdisciplinary Programs & International Initiatives
Chandler-Ullmann room 105
610-758-2941
Yale University, Ph.D., 2008
Vanderbilt University, B.S., 2000
Teaching Interests:
Introductory Psychology
Cognitive Psychology
Health Reasoning and Decision Making
Higher Order Cognition