ABSTRACT
Although it was good to be home and to catch up with family and friends, it was a time of great uncertainty. I knew that I wanted to do a PhD, preferably on a cognitive approach to learning in rats, but I had no idea how I might achieve this or a related goal. The first obstacle was that conscription to the armed forces was still in full operation, meaning that I would probably have to take a two-year break anyhow. I had maintained contact with Mackworth in Cambridge, and he suggested that if I joined the Air Force, he might be able to suggest that I be seconded to the Royal Airforce Institute of Aviation Medicine in Farnborough, which carried out research on human factors, albeit focussed specifically on aviation. That sounded tempting, although I did not see myself as interested in either flying or aeroplanes, so what if I joined the RAF and didn’t make Farnborough? I need not have worried; my family doctor asked if I really wanted to be conscripted (no thanks!), then he would give me a letter that would provide an escape. It appears that the conscription programme was running down, and the recruiters were getting rather more selective. I had had a bad attack of asthma aged 13, which was enough to have me graded C and rejected as unfit.
