ABSTRACT
In 1977 I was preparing for my final undergraduate examinations in Oxford, and considering various possibilities for postgraduate study. One topic that had particularly captured my interest was the analysis of motivation using the ideas of control system theory (MacFarland, 1971, 1974), and most of my options focused on the application of these ideas to the development of mother–infant interaction. Another strong interest was the later philosophy of Wittgenstein. However, the prospects for philosophy graduates in the UK in the late 1970s were particularly grim. It was partly for these reasons that I wanted to include among my options at least one that would allow me to work on the psychology of language. On the advice of my college tutor, Peter Bryant, this option took the form of an application to work with Phil Johnson-Laird in the Laboratory of Experimental Psychology at Sussex. Following an instinct that told me I had a deeper interest in questions about language than in questions about mother–infant interaction, I accepted an offer from Sussex. The rest is history. At least it is my personal history.
