After studying psychology at Sussex and Oxford, he taught at the University of Lancaster, the Free University of Amsterdam and the London School of Economics. In 1980, he moved to Oxford where he was Professor of Developmental Psychology and Fellow of St John's College. In 2001, he migrated to Harvard where he holds the Victor S. Thomas Professorship of Education. He is a fellow of the British Academy and of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. For 2006-2007, he received a Guggenheim award. His latest book: 'The work of the imagination' appeared in 2000. (Blackwell). He is currently study how young children learn about history, science and religion on the basis of what trusted informants tell them, rather than from first-hand observation.