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The life of Kenneth Craik
Born 29 March 1914, Craik was described to be a tall, skinny, pale faced man with dark eyes and black hair. As a hobby Craik made ships in bottles and miniature steam engines, each one smaller than the last that are now displayed in the Royal Scottish Museum. Craik was the first to determine that machines share certain principles of functioning with the brain, and pioneered the mental model theory. -
Obtaining a PhD.
While being a research student at Cambridge University, Craik's true ambition was to write a thesis concerned with the philosophy of psychology, but had no first hand experience. Craik decided to settle for vision research, this involved the measurement of the differential sensitivity of the eye with varying degrees of adaptation to the brightness of the illumination of light which formed the basis of his PhD. Thesis. -
The Cambridge Cockpit
RAF pilots were crashing not due to enemy action, but from fatigue. The apparatus contributed too discovering that the tired pilot standards slacked. Along with complacency, pilots felt bodily discomfort, Changing focus of flying to comfort, causing pilots to miss signals in their peripheral vision. This new understanding gave RAF pilots the ability to recognize signs of fatigue, and negligence. giving them the ability to be cognizant of their reduced skills and take action in correcting it. -
The Nature of Explanation
This book was the first to propose that humans think by changing internal representations of the world involving three processes. A translation of an external process into an internal representation of words, numbers, or other symbols, the derivation of other symbols from them by some sort of inferential process, and a re-translation of these symbols into action. These processes being the basis of Craik's theory of the mental model. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbikJFluA4k -
Medical Research Council appoints Craik Director of Applied Psychology Unit
Unable to serve during World War II, Craik played a key role in the research for operational problems involving human factors from all 3 royal military services of Scotland, especially the Royal Air Force. Craik was later appointed first Director of Applied Psychology Unit at Cambridge University. During this period Craik spent the entirety of his time working in the laboratory conducting experiments and taking train rides to research establishments and operational bases -
Death
On 07 May 1945, Kenneth Craik collided with a partially open door of a parked car during the King's parade. He was thrown from his bike and then hit by a truck, falling unconscious. Later that night, Craik, was pronounced dead. It is said that within his papers, there are mulitple recording of him having apprehensions of a lethal accident to come. -
The Nature of Phycology
Unable to finish and publish due to his death, S.L. Sherwood of Cambridge, edited and published "The nature of Phycology". Containing a variety of notes on philosophy, casual observations on psychology, and specialized papers on vision. However half of the book contains completed portions by Craik himself. His completed portion was centered on the mechanisms of learning and contained more detail and specifics than his book "The Nature of Explanation".
(“A Review of " The Nature of Psychology:")
