I was born in Frankston, near Melbourne, in 1939. After graduating from Bega High School in 1957, I went to the University of Sydney where I studied psychology and philosophy and went on to complete a PhD and become a lecturer in psychology. I then held academic positions at Monash University, the University of Waterloo, the University of Reading and the University of London before taking a position as Professor of Psychology at Macquarie University in 1987, and then moving from that position to be Director of the Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science (an Australian Research Council Special Research Centre) from 2000 until 2008.

Macquarie University awarded me a DSc in 2001 and an Honorary LLD in 2010, and I was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2010 Australia Day honours for services to children with learning difficulties. I'm  a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and the British Academy.

I'm currently working on the cognitive neuropsychology and computational psychology of reading and also on several topics in cognitive neuropsychiatry, especially delusional belief.