You are in: Home » History of the Unit
Our history
Overview of the History Section of this Website
The Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit was previously called the MRC Applied Psychology Unit (APU). This section records the past work of the APU and the more recent work of the CBU. It has been designed for use both by interested web surfers and by serious scholars of the History of Psychology. A short overview of the history of the APU is given below. An illustrated and interactive Timeline can also be used to find out about aspects of the work of the Unit. This timeline contains active links to much of our electronic archive. The full Electronic Archive holds more extensive material. It can give you direct access to the database of APU publications and to the text of all of the progress reports covering the work of the Unit since the 1940's. You can also watch (on-line) films about the work of the APU at various points in its history, or browse a portion of our archive of photos of staff and historic equipment. The archive also contains a section that includes brief descriptions of the many ways in which APU research influenced the world outside the laboratory.
Two conferences were held to discuss the work of the APU in an historical perspective. The first, organised by the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine* in 2001, was a part of their Witness Seminar series. It was intended to capture, via oral history, what it was like to work at the APU. An illustrated full transcript of this meeting was published and can seen here. The second conference was held here at Chaucer Road in 2005 to debate the intellectual legacy of the APU. A full record of the MRC-APU Legacy Conference is on this site. It includes full-length videos of all conference sessions, the briefing materials circulated to delegates beforehand, posters and photos. The Timeline, Legacy conference and Electronic archive can also be accessed from the menu in the left hand panel. When browsing the history pages remember you can either use the menu on the left or retrace your steps using your own browser's "back" capability.
We shall be adding more material to this site in the future. The copyright on the text, graphic and photographic material is held by the MRC. Please contact our Library and Information Services Manager if you wish to reproduce any of our material or if you have specific queries about what other archive material we hold.
* More Witness Seminars in recent medical history can be accessed via this link.
A brief history of the Unit
Established in 1944, the Unit is one of the largest and most long-lasting contributors to the development of psychological theory and practice. Its origins lie within the Industrial Fatigue Research Board that was set up during the First World War to increase munitions workers' productivity, and the Industrial Health Research Board that replaced it in the inter-war years. With the rapid technological changes that accompanied the Second World War, the emphasis changed from environmental aspects of the workplace such as lighting, temperature and hours of work, to the operation and maintenance of equipment, and in 1944 the MRC established the 'Unit for Research in Applied Psychology' within the Psychological Laboratory of Cambridge University, under the Directorship of Kenneth Craik.
Craik was tragically killed in a cycling accident a year later, and was succeeded by Sir Frederick Bartlett, who was also Professor within the University Department of Psychology. Craik was a pioneer in the use of computers as models for human information processing, developing what was probably the first computational model of skill and applying it to the wartime task of gun-aiming. Bartlett had a great talent for combining careful experimentation with the development of theory that was applicable to naturalistic as well as experimental data. These two influences on the early direction of the Unit positioned it well for the 'cognitive revolution' of the sixties.
Bartlett retired in 1951, being replaced as Director by Norman Mackworth, who found that the Unit had outgrown the space available within the Psychology Department and the annex that it had acquired. Noticing a pleasant Edwardian house on the outskirts of the city, with a very large garden, he bought it, and then informed the MRC! This building in Chaucer Road, with its subsequent extensions, has remained the home of the Unit since that time.
The Unit's early work, closely related to military problems such as pilot fatigue, the vigilance of radar operators, and the effects of environmental stress, was gradually succeeded by related research prompted by other government departments such as the Ministry of Transport and the Post Office. In 1958, after Mackworth had resigned to emigrate to Canada, Donald Broadbent became Director, and continued the information processing approach to psychology that Craik had initiated. His classic book Perception and Communication, published a few months later, was a major influence in the years that saw cognitive psychology become the dominant theoretical paradigm. Donald Broadbent was an outstandingly successful Director, and over his sixteen years at the Unit established its international reputation with a unique blend of pure and applied research.
Alan Baddeley suceeded Donald Broadbent in 1974, and as Alan himself noted at the time, Donald would be a hard act to follow. Of course, Alan did follow that act with great distinction over the 22 years of his directorship. He ensured that core strengths in the major areas of cognitive psychology were maintained, while at the same time seeking areas of application that were tractable and fundable. With the increasing importance of computers in the workplace in the seventies and eighties, a larger part of the Unit's work was conducted in association with industry, although this later diminished as recession affected industrial R&D budgets. In the beginning of the 1990's health-related problems provided the major basis for applying and enriching cognitive psychology. Initial ventures in neuropsychology involved single case studies of patients with relatively pure and specific cognitive deficits. The field was developed to the point at which it could deal with a wider range of cases where the deficits are less specific. This in turn stimulated the new field of cognitive neuropsychiatry. Cognitive psychology was also extended to encompass the relationships between cognition and emotion, which became part of a vigorous area of interaction between academic and clinical researchers. A significant contribution towards blending theoretical and practical work was reflected in the neuropsychological rehabilitation group, which moved into its accommodation in Addenbrooke's Hospital in 1995.
1994 was the CBU's 50th anniversary year - and was commemorated in pantomime. Shortly after that anniversary, Alan Baddeley retired from the Directorship. He moved to Bristol University in September 1996 to focus on research related to his model of Working Memory. He subsequently moved to the University of York where he continues that work.
William Marslen-Wilson took up his appointment as the Director of the Unit in July 1997 with a new remit from the Medical Research Council. Under his guidance, the work of the Unit was refocused on the task of constructing explanatory theories of the major components of human cognitive function, marrying psychological and computational accounts of cognitive function and architecture with increasingly detailed analyses of how these functions are realised in the brain. In collaboration with the Department of Experimental Psychology, the Clinical School, the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, and other Cambridge-based programmes, the Unit's current research is now aimed at a greater integration of cognitive science with neuroscience. To reflect these changes, the Unit was re-named the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (CBU) in April 1998.
As part of this process of change and renewal, the Unit also went through a major programme of remodelling and rebuilding. Along with the refurbishment of the old Edwardian mansion which forms the old heart of the Unit, the centrepiece of these developments was a new West Wing extension, opened in September 2001. This is a dramatic two-story addition to the CBU facilities, which houses extensive laboratory space for behavioural testing on the ground floor and excellent lecture theatre and seminar room facilities on the first floor. Beautifully integrated with the old house and with the CBU gardens (see photo at the top of this panel), this new building provides an appropriate setting for the Unit's role as a major UK centre for 21st century interdisciplinary science .
Another exciting development was seen at the end of 2005, with the MRC investing around £1.7million in the CBU's future with the erection of a new building to house a Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) (3Tesla) scanner on the premises. This facility is a valuable resource for the Unit and for others within the Cambridge imaging community.
2007 has seen a further major investment of £1.5 million by the MRC with the installation of a Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) facility on the premises. This will ensure that the Unit is able to maintain and build on its reputation as an internationally renowned centre for Neuroscience research. Again, this resource will also be used by other researchers in Cambridge.
Further details about these Research facilities, as well as the Research Programmes making use of them, can be accessed directly from the menu at the top left of this page.