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Craik is born
Craik was a Scottish philosopher and psychologist born in Edinburgh in 1914. -
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His studies
He studied philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and received his doctorate from Cambridge University in 1940. -
Visual Acuity
He wrote on visual acuity and how it might help explain visual adaptations effect on illumination discrimination. He wrote this based of a study done by fellow scientists Mellone and Rawdon-Smith. His Paper:
Craik, K. J. W. (January 1939). "The effect of adaptation upon visual acuity". British Journal of Psychology. General Section. 29 (3): 252–266. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8295.1939.tb00917.x -
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His work with Magdalen Dorothea Vernon
Between 1941 and 1943 Kenneth Craik worked with a British experimental psychologist named Magdalen Dorothea Vernon. They worked together to publish papers on dark adaptation. They questioned how the eye knew to switch between rods and cones and what mechanism "flipped the switch". They sought to understand where our dark adaptation originated. Craik, K. J. W.; Vernon, M. D. (July 1941). "The nature of dark adaptation". British Journal of Psychology. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8295.1941.tb01010.x -
Our Brain works like a machine
He was one of the first scientists to recognize that machines and the human brain share certain functions. Craik jump started the development of physiological psychology and cybernetics. Craik’s lifespan was tragically short, and he only managed to publish one complete work: The Nature of Explanation. In his book he essentially outlines one of the earliest theories on cognitive science. That the brain sees events and processes them to predict similar situations in the future. -
Craik's Death and following papers
Craik died in 1945 at the age of 31 after getting hit by a car while riding his bike. After his death, however; his two-part paper on the "Theory of Human Operators in Control Systems" was published by the British Journal of Psychology in 1947 and 1948. In 1966 Stephen L. Sherwood edited all of Craik's writings and published them in "The Nature of Psychology: A Selection of Papers, Essays and Other Writings by Kenneth J. W. Craik"