Craik, Kenneth John William (1914-1945)

Scottish psychologist. Initially involved in the study of vision, Craik became increasingly interested in the nature of cognition, believing that the brain has mechanisms similar in principle to devices used, for example, in calculating machines and anti-aircraft predictors. In several aspects of his work he anticipated later ideas in cybernetics and artificial intelligence and, were it not for his early death, would have made important contributions to these fields.

Craik's views were presented in The Nature of Explanation 1943 and developed in a posthumously published collection of essays, notes, and papers titled The Nature of Psychology 1966. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh and later studied under Frederic Charles Bartlett at Cambridge. During World War II he applied an interest in servomechanisms and control principles to human factors in the design of tank and anti-aircraft gunnery and, in 1944, was appointed first director of the Applied Psychology Unit in Cambridge.